Danny Wakelin: Melton police officer meets paramedics who saved his life

A Melbourne police officer whose heart stopped as he walked towards an ambulance has met the paramedics who saved his life.

When leading senior constable Danny Wakelin began feeling a pain in his chest he shrugged it off as heartburn.

The Melton police officer continued about his day, enjoying a Sunday dinner with his partner and teenage sons at their Sunbury home before going to bed.

“It was a normal night,” his wife Kylie Wakelin said. “I tried to get him to call an ambulance but he said he was fine.”

Just eight hours later however, she woke to find Danny sitting up in bed, still in pain and starting to break a sweat.

Supplied Editorial Melissa Van den Heuvel, Danny Wakelin and Kylie Wakelin.

She argued with the “stubborn” officer, eventually telling him she was calling an ambulance and “there was nothing he could do about it”.

Paramedics Tristan Adams and Sadie Powers arrived half an hour later and diagnosed the 47-year-old officer’s episode as a heart attack.

After refusing a wheelchair, Danny walked himself to the ambulance where he went into cardiac arrest and his heart stopped.

“Any increased workload of the heart can make their condition deteriorate further,” paramedic Tristan Adams said.

“He had been lying in bed for about eight hours by that point but not really exerting himself. If he had walked to the loo and back at any point in the night, it could have happened without anyone there.

“He’s a lucky man, if we weren't there he wouldn’t have made it.”

Paramedics Luke Baird and Catherine Cristofaro with Danny Wakelin, Kylie Wakelin and paramedics Sadie Powers and Tristan Adams.

Thankfully leading senior constable Wakelin pulled through after a three-day stint in hospital and six weeks of therapy.

Apart from a few sore ribs, he’s excited to get back to work on Wednesday.

But on Monday, in a “special” situation most paramedics and patients don’t often get to have, Danny, his wife and younger sister Melissa Van den Heuvel met with the paramedics that saved his life.

There were tears, hugging and three boxes of homemade biscuits for the station, as the four paramedics met with the emotional family.

“As a cop we do work alongside paramedics a lot, I just never thought I’d be on the receiving side of it,” Danny said.

Supplied Editorial Danny and Kylie Wakelin present gifts to the paramedics that saved his life.

“They’re just going from job to job normally. I want them to see how well I‘m doing because of their work that day.”

He said the cardiac arrest had made a lot of his friends and colleagues begin getting regular checks and recommended everyone do the same.

One in 10 heart attack patients will go into cardiac arrest while in the care of an ambulance, according to Tristan Adams, who says early intervention is key.

“If you do get chest pains call us straight away,” he added.