Deb and Greg Peters are thankful to Life Flight and other emergency organisations. Photo / Tara Lemana
Deb and Greg Peters are thankful to Life Flight and other emergency organisations. Photo / Tara Lemana
Every year, more than 2000 people in New Zealand suffer from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Only 11% survive. In these moments, every minute is crucial, as a Raumati Beach couple would find out.
Deb Peters and her husband, Greg, were sinking into their end-of-day routine, relaxed on the couch with the evening news murmuring in the background.
The first warning sign was when Greg cracked a joke expecting Deb’s usual chuckle, but received a deafening silence. He turned to find her body completely locked up.
Greg’s fingers were trembling while dialling 111. The operator reassured him that help was on the way and told him to lower Deb to the ground and start lifesaving compressions.
He could barely move her locked-up body. Desperate, he ran to a neighbour for help and together they lowered Deb to the floor. The next few minutes felt like an eternity as Greg compressed Deb’s chest.
Paramedics and firemen joined Greg in the living room and took over for him. Only seven minutes had passed, but the room full of experts had to continue fighting for 15 tense minutes until Deb’s heart responded.
There was no time to celebrate. Everyone in the room moved with purpose.
Emergency responders at Deb and Greg Peters' Raumati Beach home.
“I had no idea what the next step was,” Greg recalls
“I followed the paramedics wheeling Deb outside, and suddenly Life Flight was there. I never even heard them land. It was the best thing I could have hoped for.”
Deb was flown to Wellington Hospital’s rooftop helipad, and by the time Greg and their daughter Bernadette arrived by car, Deb was already leaving the operating theatre.
She was cared for on an ice bed in ICU. Three days later they started to warm the bed and Greg woke up to a call from the hospital. Deb was awake and asking for him.
After 12 days in Wellington, Deb was transferred to Kenepuru Hospital for rehabilitation — her recovery was astonishing.
Deb Peters in recovery after suffering a cardiac arrest.
“I heard there were three cardiac arrests in Kāpiti Coast that day, and I was the only one to make it.”
After a few weeks, Deb returned home.
“It’s been four and a half years since my accident, and every day I think to myself, how can I be a better person? I’ve been given another chance in life and it’s meant everything to me. I’ve found new hobbies, celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary, welcomed a new grandchild and so much more.”
She knows there are many situations where people don’t make it from a cardiac arrest.
“How incredibly fortunate I was that, for some reason, I was saved. I owe every person on that journey a lot of gratitude.”
Greg was thankful for the extra time with his wife and all the milestones along the way.
