It was in the middle of the second half of a football match that Martin Scherdin, 48, from Mellerud suddenly felt a stab in the chest and felt pain in one arm.
Despite that, he continued to play and even scored a goal from the penalty spot. But as the final whistle approached, he got into a head duel and headbutted the opponent. Then he collapsed and his eyes went black. Something that even P4 West reported on.
– I collapsed, and don’t remember much more after that, says Marin Scherdin to TV4 Nyheterna.
Even though it was about ten years ago, he remembers it like it was yesterday.
Taken to hospital by helicopter
Martin was taken by ambulance helicopter to Sahlgrenska Hospital in Gothenburg. When he later woke up in the hospital, he was told that he had suffered a cardiac arrest and had been dead for 20 minutes.
– It felt like waking up in a crowded grandstand with people roaring loudly and shouting around me without me hearing a sound, he says.
– Then and there I didn’t understand what had happened, but realized after a while that you don’t get any closer than this.
Martin survived the cardiac arrest thanks to the quick help he received from teammates and people at the football field.
– There were nurses on site who could start cardiopulmonary resuscitation fairly immediately.
More survive cardiac arrest
Now, Swedish research at the University of Gothenburg shows that the chance of survival is “significantly better” in sports-related cardiac arrest. Especially if it occurs at a sports and training facility. Among other things, because there are more people nearby when the cardiac arrest occurs, and because more people receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation on site.
But there is also a higher percentage who have a heart rhythm that paramedics can deal with with the help of an electric shock.
In that group, 56 percent survived, which can be compared with 12 percent in the case of cardiac arrest outside the hospital, the research shows.
Swedish healthcare reports approximately 6,000 cases of sudden cardiac arrest annually. Of these, approximately 400 are affected in connection with sports, according to the research.
There have been many sleepless nights for Martin after the cardiac arrest that happened on his birthday. But today he feels good, he says.
– It’s something I think about every day without feeling bad about it. But I live as I did before, he says.