East Lothian mum turns life-saving moment into community mission
An East Lothian woman wants more people to be trained in CPR - after her husband almost died in their home.
Stephanie Linton was at home in Ormiston on Sunday, July 19th, 2020, with her husband, Michael, and their daughter. She recalls having spent the day with them, and was upstairs with their daughter when she heard a "thud" from the living room.
She told us:
"I went downstairs and he (Michael) was lying face down, in a pool of blood. For a split second I thought, is he joking, what's going on? He's never smoked, rarely drinks, he played football four or five times a week...it was completely out of the blue, no warning signs whatsoever."
It soon transpired Michael was in cardiac arrest. Luckily, Stephanie knew what to do, as her job as a police officer had prepared her with the CPR skills she needed.
"In my job, we get annual refresher training on first aid and CPR, so I knew immediately what the signs were and what I needed to do. It was terrifying, especially with it being someone you love. But I thought, and have thought since then, what if I was working, and it was just my daughter in the house?...It's been a thing in the back of my mind. Everyone needs to know it...It can literally happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere."
Michael was in an induced coma for five days. Chances are, if he hadn't received the prompt CPR he did, he wouldn't have survived.
Steph has now made it her mission to raise awareness of the importance of CPR training within her local community.
"If I hadn't joined the police, I wouldn't have known how to do CPR," she told us. "I would've frozen."
She's now launching the Lifesaver Academy - a training service she hopes to provide to local businesses, school and football clubs, and non-profit organisations.
She said:
"What I'm offering is workplace CPR and AED training...I'll go to them and it'll be hands-on, practical training...actually doing the hands-on, how far you need to go down, how fast you need to go down, I think, is invaluable."
Recently, the Scottish Government announced £2.5 million of funding to boost emergency care across Scotland, which will support the purchase of between 1,000 and 1,250 additional defibrillators over the next three years.
The investment will also fund the creation of Cardiac Arrest Rescue Zones, focused on areas with low survival rates, as well as stronger first responder networks and CPR education in schools.
Steph hopes this means it means more people will know what to do if and when an emergency happens:
"My daughter's in fourth year, and that is prime age for them all to be getting it (CPR education). I spoke to her head teacher and he said it wasn't something they had done before, you need to go through the correct channels, which I completely understand. I just want it to be accessible to as many people as possible."
You can find out more about the Lifesaver Academy on Facebook and Instagram.