GEELONG Football Club doctor Geoff Allen has told of surviving his mid-field heart attack at AAMI Stadium of Friday night, revealing he ignored telltale chest pain in the weeks before his potentially fatal seizure.
The super-fit medic, speaking from his ward in Adelaide’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital yesterday, said he’d been “stupid” not to seek treatment after experiencing dull chest pain during the past few weeks which had started radiating into his left arm.
“If people get chest pain, make sure they go and see their doctor, not like the dumb doctor who doesn’t go and see anyone,” Dr Allen, 48, told the Geelong Advertiser.
Dr Allen had run 6km on Friday a few hours before he suffered the heart attack as he oversaw the Cats warm up on AAMI Stadium for the match against the Crows.
“I’d had a little bit of pain but I just thought it was kind of like a muscle I’d pulled in my chest and that it wasn’t heart, which is great for a doctor not to pick up, and on the night I had no pain,” Dr Allen said.
“If I’d been home I really would have got it checked out but then thought I’ll go and get this sorted out on Monday.
“It was just dumb, in retrospect, very stupid and I’m very lucky.”
Dr Allen remained in cardiac care yesterday, active and eating but still connected to two drips and a heart monitor.
His wife Claudia and children Emma, 15, Georgie, 12, and Sam, 10, caught a midnight light plane flight on Friday night to be by his side.
Cardiologists diagnosed blockage of one congenitally narrow artery, inserted a stent to keep it clear and predicted a full recovery.
Dr Allen owes his life to the immediate cardiac resuscitation response of officials including fellow club doctor Chris Bradshaw and paramedics, and to the proximity of a heart defibrillator.
“With that rhythm I was in, without a defibrillator, it rarely reverts without electricity,” Dr Allen said.
“If I’d done it even in the mall or somewhere where there’s no defibrillator, by the time an ambulance gets to you it’s probably going to be too late or by the time it gets to you, your brain’s going to be dead.
“I was zapped within two minutes, which is hopefully why my brain is OK.”
Dr Bradshaw, who had run the six kilometres with Dr Allen during Friday afternoon, said his friend was in a desperate state.
“He didn’t have a pulse, he wasn’t breathing and he was blue,” Dr Bradshaw said.
“Basically he had a full cardiac arrest, he wasn’t in a great way, it was a bit scary.
“All of the players were still around him, it was crazy.”
Dr Bradshaw said he was grateful for having completed a refresher emergency resuscitation response course organised by the Cats about six weeks ago.





















