After the recent publicity about Christian Eriksen at the European Football it brought back memories to Roger Lomas who suffered a cardiac arrest while playing hockey at Abbeydale in February 2015 , aged 69. Fortunately there was help around with team mates and medics who were watching the game organising CPR until a defibrillator in the squash club ( which he was instrumental in acquiring ten years earlier) was brought to the pitch and shocked him back to life. He didn’t recover consciousness until a couple of hours later in hospital and was very lucky to survive given the amount of time CPR had to be administered. It was very cold and probably that allowed his body to shut down without further complications. All the people who helped with medical procedures were fantastic particularly Andy Robinson and Marnie Grieg , although he knows nothing about it.
The following morning he was on his mobile to colleagues about a North event he was supposed to organising that day.

If this had happened whilst on a walk away from people he wouldn’t have survived
He had an angiogram and a stent inserted in an artery a couple of days later and has not looked back since. He says not being aware of what happened helped in the recovery and after his rehab was allowed to start playing golf eight weeks later and a hockey tournament three weeks after that.
He is now in his fifty-eighth year playing at Abbeydale and has developed his masters hockey career. He was in the North O70 team who won the gold medal at the regional finals in 2019 and was vice captain of the England LX O70 team who won the gold medal at the European Tournament in Antwerp 2019. (see photo)
He was selected for the England O75 team in 2020 but covid kept that down to one game with a trip to a European event in Holland and then Tokyo to play in world cup now postponed to 2022!!

As a result of the incident a lot of hockey clubs around the country have now acquired defibrillators and most people playing sport should know where the nearest one is and everyone should know how to administer CPR.
Life does carry on after such medical events and hopefully Christian Eriksen will make a full recovery and carry on playing to.

Roger also told his story to Paulette Edwards on her BBC Radio Sheffield show. Roger appears 2hours and 13minutes into the show. Listen here:
BBC Radio Sheffield