By NOEL MURPHY
A Torquay man has made an emotional plea to meet the strangers who saved him after a heart attack on White’s Beach.
Sean Purcell said a lung infection caused his heart to stop while jogging nine months ago.
“I was kept alive for 25 minutes by 10-plus highly-skilled strangers via CPR before a defibrillator was sourced and started my heart again,” he posted on social media this week.
“Twenty minutes later the paramedics arrived and I was air-lifted to the Geelong Hospital.
“I was placed in a coma for five days and my wife and family were told that if I woke up I would be suffering high-end brain damage.
“It’s now nine months on and I have made a full recovery. I have 100 per cent brain function, I am training again and working full time in a job that I love.”
Mr Purcell said experts told him the chances of surviving “cardiac death” with CPR were below three per cent.
“To the people on the beach that morning: you saved my life and I wake every single day and thank God that you were there for me,” he said.
“I have not met any of you and I want to.
“I understand your reluctance to step forward but I would like to thank you face to face for changing the course of my family’s lives as a result of your selfless act.
“Because of you my children still have their dad, my parents still have their son and my wife still has her husband.”
Mr Purcell asked his stranger saviours contact him on Facebook, 0475 037 839 or sean.purcell@cottononfoundation.org.
