I was dead - Watch Sunderland man recall coming back for the brink and donating £2,000 for community defibrillators - video Dailymotion

Antony Ryan recalls being brought back from the brink of death thanks  to a defibrillator.

Transcript

00:00Well Cairnante, can I just start by asking about your situation and when a defibrillator was deployed on yourself?

00:06Yeah, well basically I was 100 metres out on the sea in Roca, in between the piers, just having a swim.

00:14I was about 100 metres out. I had no pain, no indication that something was going to happen at all.

00:21It was a lovely day. Decided that 100 metres out we were going to have a little float

00:27and we were just floating about and me and my friend Andy, we were just chatting.

00:34The last thing I remember was putting the back of my head in the water and that was the last thing I remember.

00:41It turns out that my heart stopped. Andy pulled us into the beach.

00:46There were two guys on the beach who had done the first aid course the day before.

00:51They helped to pull us up the beach and then all of them decided to do CPR on us.

00:57There were two nurses just happened to be walking along the promenade who, one of them knew that there was a defibrillator there.

01:05And she, one of them came down, stripped us off, got us ready for the defibrillator.

01:10The other one called 999 and got the defibrillator, came down and used the defibrillator on us, which clearly got us back.

01:19And without that I wouldn't be here today.

01:22So obviously you've donated the money to get this defibrillator fitted.

01:26Just how pleased do I do to be part of Lesley's legacy in ensuring that there's a defibrillator in every village in Washington?

01:31Well I just think it's fantastic and I'm somebody that I just want to give back.

01:36You know, how do you thank somebody for saving your life?

01:39And I just want to give back.

01:41And when I heard, when I came out of the hospital and I'd heard about Lesley's legacy walk, I was in straight away.

01:49And then when I won Fundraiser of the Year, because I raised £28,000 for Daft as a Brush, a cancer charity.

02:00They awarded us, because I was Fundraiser of the Year, they awarded us £2,000.

02:06And it was straight away I knew that Lesley's legacy was nearly complete.

02:10And, you know, it was my pleasure to use that money to buy the defibrillator.