Lukas Johansson collapsed during half-time of a 5-a-side match as his heart stopped beating for 15 minutes.
Luckily for Lukas, Tom Dunning who was on his opponents team rushed to his aid and administered CPR. Tom’s quick actions meant that the paramedics were able to reach Lukas and give him three shocks from a defibrillator to resuscitate and ultimately save him life.
What makes this story even more incredible is that Tom was a last minute addition to the league that night. On the day of the incident, the league rang him up and asked if he wanted to play as they had a spare slot.
Tom said he knew what to do due to a British Heart Foundation television advert. “I was off work a couple of years before this with my mental health, I just so happened to have seen an advert on TV and it’s called ‘Staying Alive’.
It teaches you how to do CPR on a body and it just stuck. I was just singing ‘Staying Alive’ doing chest compressions for 15 minutes straight.”
Whilst Tom saved Lukas’ life, he claims that his opponent also saved his.
“In some respects I have to thank Lukas for having the cardiac arrest. I was in a bad place with my mental health and I was trying to take my own life. In many ways, saving Lukas’ life has saved mine as well”
Lukas has now made a full recovery from the incident and is just relieved that he collapsed when he did.
“That could have happened to me anywhere, I could be walking the dog, I could have been anywhere and that could have happened with nobody around. Then the outcome could have been a lot worse.
At the start of May, ex-footballing pros including Tom Lockyer, Fabrice Muamba, Glenn Hodde and David Ginola came together to help announce Sky Bet’s partnership with the British Heart Foundation.
‘Every Minute Matters’ aims to recruit 270,000 people to learn life saving CPR over the next 12 months. The campaign urges people to take 15 minutes to learn CPR with ReviR, the British Heart Foundation’s free and easy to use digital tool. Since the start of May, 27,000 have already begun learning CPR with RevivR.
Sky Bet has pledged £3 million to help the cause and the work has already started with the bookmakers donating £10,000 for each goal scored during this season’s Sky Bet Play-Offs. £370,000 has already been raised thanks to the goals scored in the race for promotion in the EFL.
Thomas Thorn