Eugene is speaking out to raise awareness of heart health, including the danger signs that led up to his collapse while playing touch rugby.
Video / Supplied
Only 10% of New Zealanders who suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survive to hospital discharge - a rate that’s worsening. The Heart Foundation wants all high school students to learn CPR, and to have more defibrillators in the community. Both responses brought Eugene Tuhaka back from the brink.
Eugene Tuhaka couldn’t understand his breathlessness. Sport and fitness had always been a big part of his life, but he could now barely last a minute on the touch field.
On December 9, 2022, the father of four was subbed back into a social game on the fields of Pukekohe Rugby Club.
He told a spectator that he was getting too old for such an effort, before running onto the field, moving to join the defensive line, and collapsing to the ground.
What Tuhaka, who is now 52, thought might be asthma was actually angina - reduced blood flow to the heart. A blood clot had lodged in an artery, stopping the heart suddenly (a cardiac arrest).
His teammates cleared space around his lifeless body. CPR was performed, and a defibrillator fetched from the nearby clubrooms, as precious minutes ticked by.
Tuhaka’s then 12-year-old son was on the sidelines and sent messages that reached his wife, Paula, and older son, who were soon sprinting from their home bordering the fields.
Police, fire and paramedics arrived. After the third shock from the defibrillator Tuhaka showed the first signs of life, since his collapse more than 15 minutes earlier.
“My teammates were yelling at me to come back. Then, just like that, I woke up,” he told the Herald.
“No pain, no nothing. That’s the weird part - while it felt like I had a little nap, everyone surrounding me was traumatised.
“A couple of big props in my team just freaked out and left.”
Eugene and Paula Tuhaka, photographed in May this year. Eugene feels lucky to be alive after his cardiac arrest in December 2022. Photo / supplied
Tuhaka’s heart issues first surfaced in April 2018, when he felt a sudden loss of power while using a squat machine at the gym.
Eventually, a blood test revealed high levels of troponin, an enzyme produced by heart failure. However, extensive testing including an MRI did not show any cause for concern, nor did blood tests done every three months.
He was put on blood thinners for a year, as well as blood pressure tablets, and cleared to return to playing sport, which he did without problems until his breathlessness began around the start of 2022.
“I didn’t know what it was. My MRI scans before that were good, but blood [tests] were clean, and I even had an ultrasound … I’d done some DIY around home with some tiles, and thought I might have got some silica dust into my lungs.”
After the cardiac arrest on December 9 that year he was conscious during the ambulance ride to Middlemore Hospital. Cardiologist Dr Selwyn Wong and his team had left for the day, but returned to perform an angioplasty, which opens up artery blockages with a metal mesh stent.
Eugene Tuhaka has faced both a physical and mental recovery after his cardiac arrest and heart issues. Photo / supplied by the Heart Foundation
Two days later more stents were put into his left anterior descending artery (LAD).
Tuhaka was discharged the next day and encouraged to be active right away. On the first walk with Paula he found the breathlessness had gone.
The mental recovery was harder, but attending a cardiac support group every Friday morning helped. Initially apprehensive given he was at least 20 years younger than other members, Tuhaka found it beneficial to share experiences, and now counts many members as friends.
He’s back to being fit and active, but now coaches and referees sport rather than participate, to avoid sprinting at full throttle.
A year after the cardiac arrest he felt ready to meet and thank the people who saved his life, including his teammates who helped perform CPR, Kevin Bell and Derek McFarlane, and the directors of Coresteel Buildings in Pukekohe who donated the defibrillator, which had only been used in earnest once before.
Another stop was Pōkeno Bacon, run by Pat Clotworthy and his wider family. The 43-year-old was in the clubrooms when his son alerted him to Tuhaka’s collapse.
He told another club member to get the defibrillator, and upon reaching Tuhaka did CPR, calling on vague recollections of a lesson in high school, and an episode of a TV programme that followed paramedics in the United Kingdom.
“I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. But all I remembered was it is better to do something than nothing,” Clotworthy told the Herald. “The defibrillator came over and everyone was looking at me as if I knew what I was doing. And I’m like, ‘This is my job, I’m just going to pump on the heart here, I’ve found my place.’”
However, when the machine was turned on a recorded voice gave clear instructions for Clotworthy to follow. How easy it was surprised him, as did the shock that went through Tuhaka.
“He would have jumped like four inches off the ground … it felt like forever … his wife turned up, and all the kids. You just couldn’t imagine how chaotic it was - they were screaming for us to save him.”
That intensity vanished after Tuhaka was revived and rushed away by ambulance.
“I just went back into the club, finished my beer and then went home.”
Tuhaka lost his mother to a heart attack and an older brother, and agreed to speak to the Herald to raise awareness of heart health, including the work of groups including the Heart Foundation.
More than 2300 people had a cardiac arrest at home or in the community in the year to June 2022, and only one in 10 survived to hospital discharge.
