Brenna Cooper
A 37-year-old man has revealed how trying to force himself to finish his wife's gym class led to him dropping dead for seven whole minutes.
When Dale Bilson, from Castle Donington, Leicestershire, decided to start his morning by heading to a gym class with his wife Sophie in August, he had no idea how close he would come to his death.
"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," he recalled of the day.
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However, the marketing boss wasn't even able to make it through the first round of exercises before feeling a tightness in his chest, something which he brushed off out of fear of being seen as a 'wimp' by the rest of the class.
"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'," he said.
"Being a bloke, I thought I've already been a wimp leaving the class so if I leave it five minutes, the pain will wear off."
After heading outside to get some air, Dale was hoping the tightness would subside, but after 15 minutes of continuous pain his wife took him to get checked out at the hospital.
The decision to head to the hospital would turn out the crucial in saving Dale's life, as he went into cardiac arrest within minutes of arriving.
"They started CPR on me and put me onto a machine that does CPR mechanically which forces your heart to start beating," the father explained.
"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."
Fortunately doctors were able to restart Dale's heart and he was fitted with a cardiac stent after it was discovered he unknowingly had blocked arteries.
The dad, who exercises regularly and had no previous heart issues, is now trying to raise awareness about the dangers of heart disease.
"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," he added.
"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."
For more information on heart attacks and cardiac arrest, click here.