The family of a Co Laois teenager who suffered a cardiac arrest while on a swim training camp in Barcelona last summer say they believe CPR training should be made mandatory in secondary schools.
14-year-old Logan Smyth says he is grateful to his coach and teammates for getting him out of the pool and performing over ten minutes of CPR on him before paramedics arrived on the scene.
"I'm very, very grateful I'm still here," said the teenager.
"I'm very grateful that Padraic was there and he saved my life and I'm so grateful to my team for getting me out of the pool in the first place," he added.
Watch: Learning CPR will save a life, says Logan Smyth
In June, the 14-year-old from Abbeyleix was at a swim training camp with his team in Barcelona when he suffered a sudden cardiac arrest in the swimming pool.
His 18 teammates from Marlins Swim Club, who were in the water too, scrambled to assist him out of the water and his coach Padraic Dolan immediately recognised Logan had no pulse.
Mr Dolan, from Portlaoise, is a Clinical Skills Facilitator ED and Critical Care in Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise and so began to administer CPR immediately and called for the AED and for emergency services.
"At first I thought he had fainted but I realised pretty quick that it was a lot more than a faint and so I commenced CPR straight away," he said.
Unfortunately, the AED at the pool was defective so Mr Dolan continued CPR for about 12 minutes until the paramedics arrived.
"He was lucky. I've been a cardiac nurse for almost 15 years, and I work in critical care," he explained.
"But when I recognised what happened, it was like one of my own kids, the whole scenario was different, it was very personal.
"The defib came and it wasn't working, it was just one of those things that happened, the pads were dry, and it wouldn't connect so I carried out good quality CPR for about 12 minutes, until the paramedics came.
"They hooked him up straight away. He was in a shockable rhythm and one shock, and they got him back straight away."
"He had what we call ROSC, Return of Spontaneous Circulation, which is the resumption of a sustained heart rhythm that perfuses the body after cardiac arrest."
Mr Dolan travelled to hospital with Logan and remained there until Logan's father Seán travelled over from Ireland.
In the days that followed, it emerged that Logan had a rare congenital heart condition called left artery AAOCA, where one of the coronary arteries arises from the wrong aortic sinus.
"We feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude."
In many cases, like Logan's, the first sign of AAOCA is sudden cardiac arrest.
The teenager spent a week in ICU in Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona before being flown home by air ambulance to CHI at Crumlin where he underwent heart surgery on 8 July and has since been recovering well.
"Undoubtedly, CPR is what saved Logan's life," said his father, Seán Smyth.
"Not only did he survive but there is no neurological damage either. He is his normal self.
"We had many conversations with healthcare professionals throughout the whole ordeal, and repeatedly they said that Logan was beyond the point of survival after eight minutes.
"But it was the high quality CPR that his coach Padraic carried out that saved his life."
'You never know when you might need the skill'
Mr Smyth is also Principal of Scoil Chríost Rí in Portlaoise, an all-girls secondary school. He said he would like to see CPR training become part of the school curriculum.
"It's great to be a principal and have a platform of 880 students in my school where we can push this as a really important life skill," he said.
"We worked with CRY Ireland, they've come out to the club and to the school and have done training with the students and their parents," he said.
"We had a Restart the Heart Day in September and I'm working with the Irish Heart Foundation on integrating CPR into SPHE, for example, as a one-hour module. We did that this year, and it worked well.
"You never know when you might need the skill," he added.
"Just knowing CPR can turn a dire situation into one that can be fixed."
The Irish Heart Foundation has a programme called CPR 4 Schools, which trains post-primary school students all over Ireland in the life-saving skill of CPR.
During training, students become equipped with the new skill of CPR, learn how to recognise a cardiac arrest, perform chest compressions, use an AED, and learn how to recognise a stroke.
Logan's family are grateful that their son is making a full recovery.
"We feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude," said Mr Smyth.
In recent weeks, Logan's coach Padraic and the rest of the Marlins Swim Team were given a bravery award by Irish Water Safety.
"He is our hero in our house, but we're also grateful to the wider club too who wrapped their arms around us and looked after Logan too," he said.
Logan's teammates raising awareness
All of Logan's teammates are now trained in CPR and are raising awareness locally of its importance.
Lena Ziemann said she froze when Logan became unwell.
"I didn't know CPR before now. Maybe I would have reacted differently if I knew what to do. Now I know CPR and I know what to do," she explained.
The students want to use their experience to raise awareness.
"I go to Coláiste Íosagáin in Portlaoise, and we have teamed up with Scoil Chríost Rí and we are organising a life-saving day where students will be taught CPR," said Amy Donoher, another one of Logan's teammates.
"We never know what could happen. Just knowing CPR can turn a dire situation into one that can be fixed," said another teammate, Holly Gunne.
For Logan, adjusting to life without sport has been difficult but he is slowly making a return to swimming.
He attends St Mary’s CBS and, according to his family and friends, has shown real bravery and determination in recent months.
"It's affected me in many ways, but there's good things too," he said.
"I've been able to do a bit of exercise again and I'll be back swimming soon enough if I get good news. It just takes time," he added.
Like his parents Seán and Edel and coach, Padraic, Logan believes CPR should be mandatory in schools.
"CPR is vital. Everybody should learn it. It should be in schools. If I didn't have CPR, I would have died," he said.
"You could save someone like me," he added.
