A teenager has demanded answers after she ‘died’ in front of her classmates despite repeatedly being told by doctors that her chest pain was just a symptom of anxiety.
Student Evelyn Walker, 17, needed life-saving CPR from her teachers to restart her heart after suffering a cardiac arrest and collapsing in school.
The teen’s heart is believed to have stopped for five minutes before she was stabilised and blue lighted to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.
There, Evelyn was placed into a three-day coma and hospitalised for a month before being fitted with an internal defibrillator to regulate the heart’s rhythm and prevent similar incidents in the future.
Evelyn believes she may have had an underlying heart issue for a while after flagging chest pains with her GP two years before the incident, but says her symptoms were dismissed as ‘anxiety’.
Evelyn, from Hitchin, Hertfordshire, said: ‘The only indication that I had any issue was that I had mild chest pains. We went to the GP about it a couple of years ago but they just put it down to physical symptoms of anxiety and it never got investigated.
‘We still don’t know if that was linked. I’m quite frustrated I was just told it was anxiety, just because I’m a young person. I’m sure if I was over 60 complaining of chest pain, they would’ve looked into it further.
‘Don’t just assume doctors are right. You know your own body better than anyone else and if you think something is off then don’t be afraid to push and get it investigated. Heart problems can affect anyone.’
Evelyn Walker,17, collapsed in front of her fellow pupils, leaving staff desperately performing CPR before she was rushed to hospital
On the day she collapsed, February 7th, she began to feel unwell before her first lesson.
‘It was just a normal morning. I got up, had my breakfast, got ready for school, walked to school with my friend, then when I got into school at around 8.30am, I basically just collapsed,’ says Evelyn.
‘I felt fine that morning. Everything was normal until I started getting chest pains, began feeling sick and collapsed.
‘I don’t have any memories of the event. I completely blacked out.’
The 17-year-old had gone into cardiac arrest, with teachers racing across the building to grab their on-site defibrillator and alert the school’s medical officer.
An unconscious Evelyn was shocked twice with the device, which successfully restarted her heart before she was rushed to hospital.
Her mother, Jennifer Walker, 47, said: ‘It was the worst moment of my entire life. I was in bed asleep having a lie in and heard my phone going then just saw the word ‘ambulance’ on my phone.
‘I just thought Evelyn had bumped her head or fallen over. Then the police were on my doorstep and I just thought she was dead. It was absolutely awful.
Evelyn recieved CPR at school after suddenly collapsing in her morning lesson
While some warning signs are easy to spot — such as severe chest pain — others are more vague and hard to pinpoint
‘I was just screaming and screaming. Then when I realised she wasn’t dead, I just chucked some jeans on and we went to the school.
‘I was in complete shock, nothing like this had ever happened before. It was completely out the blue. She’s a healthy, vibrant young girl.’
After multiple tests, doctors believed abnormalities in Evelyn’s heart could be to blame.
She has since been fitted with an internal defibrillator and said her near-death experience has changed her outlook on life.
Evelyn said: ‘Now that this has happened, I just want to pursue the life that I want to live. I feel like I’ve been given a second chance.
‘I thought I was young and healthy and nothing like this would ever happen to me.
Her mother, a consultant, has launched a Facebook page called ‘Young Hearts UK’ to help raise awareness of sudden cardiac arrest in young people.
She wants more people to learn CPR and defibrillator training in light of her daughter’s episode.
Evelyn has since been fitted with an internal defibrillator and said her near-death experience has changed her outlook on life
Mum Jennifer, a bid consultant who has launched a Facebook page ‘Young Hearts UK’ to help raise awareness of sudden cardiac arrest in young people, wants more people to learn CPR
NHS data shows a rise in the number of younger adults suffering from heart attacks over the past decade. The biggest increase (95 per cent) was recorded in the 25-29 year-old demographic, though as numbers of patients are low even small spikes can look dramatic
Mrs Walker said: ‘If you do have some sort of chest pain, do get it looked into and don’t just assume it’s nothing.
‘If [doctors] had just done a five-minute ECG, they would’ve seen Evelyn’s results weren’t normal.
‘[Sudden cardiac arrest] is fairly rare for young people but not unheard of. In fact, 12 young people under 35 die each week in the UK from a SCA. That’s why we want people to know CPR and to know where their nearest defibrillator is.’
Alarming data last year revealed that premature deaths from cardiovascular problems such as heart attacks and strokes reached their highest level in more than a decade.
MailOnline has previously highlighted how the number of young people under 40 in England being treated for heart attacks by the NHS is on the rise.
Rising obesity rates, and its catalogue of associated health problems such as high blood pressure and diabetes, are thought to be one of the major contributing factors.
There are more than 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the UK each year, with a survival rate of less than one in ten, according to the British Heart Foundation.
In around one in 20 spontaneous heart-related deaths in the UK, no definite cause can be found – known as sudden cardiac deathsyndrome.
