It was near the end of the final hockey game of the season for a group of Nanaimo oldtimers hockey players and one that would forever change the life of Paul Walters.
The 52-year-old harbour patrol captain had enjoyed the sport for four decades and was nearing the end of the Dec. 21 matchup when he felt an intense pain in his chest that he thought might be attributed to his asthma.
Walters recalls lacking the classic heart attack symptoms, such as shooting pain down an arm or chest and told his team he was packing in for the night when he felt sick.
His chest pain intensified and as he changed in the dressing room, he told someone to grab fellow player Dave Sheepwash, an off-duty paramedic also trained in advanced life support.
Sheepwash asked someone to call 911 just as Walters collapsed and stopped breathing.
Sheepwash and players Jeff Braun and Pat O’Dwyer took turns administering CPR and used the AED ( automated external defibrillator ) which was available at the Nanaimo Ice Centre which was fitted in late 2008, as they waited for paramedics.
It took five hours to stabilize Walters, who was transported to a Victoria hospital where he learned an artery was badly blocked. After surgery he was moved back to Nanaimo Regional General Hospital and released on Boxing Day. He will continue his recovery at home.
It is a happy Christmas story for Walters but the incident has given life a new meaning for the active father, who only three weeks earlier had received a good bill of health after a routine physical.
“My thoughts are now to take fitness more seriously,” said Walters on Saturday. “You get your life back and you find out you have so many friends. I’m very humbled by the reaction I’ve had.”
