Magnus Eriksson’s wife’s heart stopped last summer at the cottage. A contract firefighter resuscitated his wife for half an hour. Now the man was chosen as Turku regional firefighter of the year.
Parisians Magnus Eriksson and his wife Helena Holländer-Eriksson were leaving the cottage for home on Sunday in July last year. Magnus had already gotten into the car when Helena announced that she was still going to the bathroom.
“I heard a crash and noticed that the toilet door was slightly open. When I went to look, my wife was lying lifeless on the floor of the toilet,” says Magnus about what happened.
Magnus Eriksson has worked for more than 30 years as a contract firefighter in the Lielahti contract fire department in Paraini. During that time, he has participated in several resuscitation situations, but previously being resuscitated was a stranger to him.
Now it was my own wife who had to be revived.
Eriksson got his wife moved outside the toilet onto her back and tested her pulse. It was not found.
“It was complete cardiac arrest. The pulse was zero and the fingertips were blue. I started CPR right away,” says Eriksson.
An adult in CPR, you have to push 30 times perpendicularly downwards from the sternum. After this, CPR is continued by calmly blowing into the victim’s mouth twice so that the chest rises. Pressing and blowing are repeated at the same pace.
“I first did CPR with one hand and called the emergency number with the other.”
A medical helicopter and an ambulance arrive on the scene after about 25 minutes.
For Eriksson, those were mentally and physically long minutes.
Pressure resuscitation is difficult, so the general guideline is that you should change the resuscitator every few minutes.
“At the beginning of the resuscitation, I thought that I would not give up, no matter how long it took for the ambulance to arrive. Fortunately, the wife’s sister was there, and she took over CPR for a few minutes so that I could catch my breath from time to time,” says Eriksson.
The younger resuscitator did not receive as strong pressure, so Eriksson quickly continued to press.
Ambulance staff got the wife’s heart started and the patient was transported to the intensive care unit of Turku University Central Hospital.
“He was in a coma for ten days,” says Eriksson.
The wife got home after two months.
Magnus Eriksson was awarded firefighter of the year over the weekend at the party of Åbolands Brandkårsförbund, the union representing contract fire departments in the Turunmaa region. Eriksson attended the party with his wife.
About rewarding Eriksson told first Åbo Underrättelser
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