March 17, 2017
When 15-year-old Jayde saw her mother Marion collapsed on the loungeroom floor, she knew exactly what to do … she calmly rang Triple 0 and asked for the ambulance.
Jayde’s quick response – plus a new clot-busting drug – saved Marion Waldie’s life, and also led to the Nanango pair appearing on national TV last week.
“It started just like a normal day,” Marion recalled. “I got up in the morning and saw my husband John off to work.
“I then got Jayde up for school and went outside to hang out the washing.
“I started to feel a bit of pain, I didn’t feel right.”
As she walked from the bathroom into the loungeroom, she started to sweat and feel like she was burning up.
She grabbed at her chest and collapsed on the floor, but remained conscious.
Fortunately, Jayde was just a few feet away in the kitchen – and she called Triple 0.
A tape of the call proves just how calm Jayde was, encouraging her mum – who was moaning in the background – to keep breathing through the pain.
Jayde also got some ice packs out of the fridge to help cool her down.
“I was not scared really. I just wanted to make sure mum was okay,” Jayde said.
“Jayde was very calm and she calmed me,” Marion agreed. “She said it’s okay mum, they’re coming, they’re coming.”
Nanango ambulance station is just minutes away and paramedics were quickly on the scene.
“I didn’t hear the sirens, I was in too much pain. The pain was awful, in the centre of my chest,” Marion said.
“I saw Jayde standing there with the ambulance driver. I grabbed the ambulance man and said ‘don’t let me die’ and that was it.”
For only the second time in the South Burnett – and only the second time in Queensland – the paramedics administered a drug called Metalyse to break up the clot that was causing Marion’s heart attack.
But she wasn’t out of the woods yet …
Marion went into cardiac arrest on the loungeroom floor, and the paramedics had to use a defibrillator to restart her heart.
She was then taken to Nanango Hospital where she was stabilised before being flown to Nambour Hospital.
“I went into cardiac arrest four times,” Marion said.
She calls the four ambulance paramedics – Josh, Toby, Danny and Lachlan – her guardian angels.
Marion had a stent inserted in her heart in hospital the same day and, amazingly, just six days later she was home.
The health scare has had at least two consequences for Marion … first there was the TV interview last week on Channel 7’s Sunrise show, and more importantly: “I don’t smoke any more!”
“It was very, very scary,” she said.
- External link: Sunrise interview (Channel 7)
