Dale Bilson, from Castle Donington, Leicestershire, began feeling unwell minutes after joining an early morning HIIT class with his wife Sophie in August and soon felt a tightness in his chest.
The 37-year-old dad put it down to ‘being a wimp’ and opted to carry on with the class as his wife joked she thought he was ‘fitter than this’.
However, after one circuit of burpees and squat jumps, the dad-of-one had to leave the group for some fresh air when the pain in his chest worsened.
Concerned the pain may be a sign of something more sinister, Dale was taken to A&E by his wife Sophie to be checked over.
Just a few minutes after arriving, the business owner went into cardiac arrest in the hospital waiting room due to a heart attack and was given emergency CPR.
Doctors made three attempts to restart Dale’s heart while he lay dead on a hospital bed for an excruciating seven minutes.
Luckily, on the third attempt, Dale was brought back to life – and taken into surgery to have a stent fitted into the blocked artery that caused the heart attack.
Dale, who exercises regularly by playing rugby, and football and going to the gym, had no prior heart-related issues, feels lucky to be alive – and is urging others to know the signs and symptoms of a heart attack.
Dale said: “My wife persuaded me to do an early morning HIIT class at our local gym. We started doing the warm up and I felt more tired than I normally would.
“I managed one set of circuits doing burpees and squat thrusts and that sort of thing and my wife looked over at me and said ‘You’ve already stopped, I thought you were fitter than this’.
“At the start of the second circuit, I thought this doesn’t feel right at all. I felt like I needed some fresh air and took myself out of the environment.
“My chest was starting to feel a bit tight, which developed into a bit of pain. Being a bloke, I thought I’d already been a wimp leaving the class so if I leave it five minutes, the pain will wear off.”
Dale said: “They started CPR on me and put me onto a machine that does CPR mechanically which forces your heart to start beating.
“They tried to get my heart started on its own, but it didn’t work the first two times apparently. They said I had no heartbeat for seven or eight minutes.
“Apparently if it was over nine minutes, your risk of not being resuscitated goes up massively. Soph was told to phone everyone to come see me and say goodbye.”
Eventually, doctors were able to get Dale’s heart restarted again and he immediately had a cardiac stent fitted to prevent further health issues.
Dale was told one artery was completely blocked and a further two were 70 per cent blocked – causing the blood flow to his heart to be cut off.
Dale said: “At my age it was pretty much unheard of. Family history is a big part of and we think stress had an impact. Almost every doctor I’ve spoken to has told me how young I am.
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“The doctors told me that the stars aligned. If I hadn’t been with my wife at the gym, she wouldn’t have been able to drive me and I could’ve gone into cardiac arrest on the way there.
“So many different things went in my favour. It hit home that my daughter could’ve been going to her first day of school without a dad and my wife Sophie would’ve been a widow at 28.
“I would tell people to always check out their family history and if you have any concerns at all, get yourself checked out at the doctors.
“And if you’re in a situation where you think you’re having a heart attack, phone 999.”