The man was seen floating face down in the ocean pool at Mona Vale after swimming laps on Saturday morning and was dragged from the water by a female bystander.
Surf patrol life guards aged between 16 and 18, accompanied by an older team leader, began resuscitation at the poolside and a defibrillator was used to restart his heart.
The swimmer was moved to Mona Vale hospital and put into a medically induced coma.
Mr Faddy said doctors believe he will make a full recovery.
“This was a patrol made up largely of teenage boys and girls,” Mr Faddy said in a statement.
“The way they responded to the emergency was a credit to them as lifesavers and a reflection of the quality of their training.
“They can certainly go home today knowing that they saved a life.”
Andrew Blanshard from Denby Dale was on a course learning how to teach swimming at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield when the incident happened.
He said: “During the lunch-time break I went for a swim and the next thing I knew I woke up hospital two days later.
“I just blacked out and went down in the water. I later found out that I had a heart condition and this could have happened at any time.”
Andrew was pulled from the water by lifeguards who spotted that he had lost consciousness.
They performed life-saving resuscitation on the business consultant using a defibrillator when they discovered he had stopped breathing.
Andrew has taken part in sports all his life and is a member of Wakefield Triathlon Club.
Andrew was fit and healthy and had competing for years in triathlons around the world.
He said: “I’m incredibly fit so it just goes to show that this can happen to anyone.
“I am just so grateful to the staff for saving my life.
“It really is a testament to their training, as well as their personalities, that they did everything perfectly during the rescue and the venue should be extremely proud of them.”
Helen Broadbent, general manager at the Sheffield International Venues-managed pool, said: “Everyone at the venue is thrilled that Andrew is recovering well from his ordeal.
“It was the first time we used the defibrillator unit for real and highlighted how critical it is that pools have one available.”
Andrew is now recovering at home after spending 10 nights on the coronary care unit at Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital.
Mr Callaghan, who has been body surfing since 1962, was holidaying in St Ives with wife Gill, 74, Julian, daughter Sue Tallis, 47 and her children Lucy, 15, and Harry, who live in Frolisworth, near Lutterworth.
John Callaghan the Survivor
He returned to the apartment feeling cold and tired after a surfing session on July 16.
John suddenly collapsed on the bathroom floor.
His son Julian, who used to be a lifeguard at Stamford Leisure Pool, gave his father emergency resuscitation while his grandson Harry Tallis, 12, ran to the beach to ask for help.
Lifeguards Robert Sprent-Howell, James Symons, Emily Harris and Ben Tregonning collected an emergency first aid kit, including a defibrillator, and ran to the apartment where they found Mr Callaghan unconscious.
Mr Callaghan’s heart was shocked three times by the defibrillator to get it started.
Another lifeguard Sarah Rowe and the St Ives Coastguard team cleared an area on the beach for the Royal Navy helicopter to land to take Mr Callaghan, who was breathing but had a weak pulse, to hospital.
After five days in intensive care in Truro, Mr Callaghan was transferred to Glenfield Heart Hospital, in Leicester and underwent surgery to fit an implantable cardioverter defibrillator.
Mr Callaghan is now fully recovered but says he has quit body surfing.
Mr Symons said: “We were delighted and very relieved when John’s wife came down to the beach the next day to tell us that he was making a recovery.”
Mr John Parlatt was in the pool at Southwell Leisure Centre when Mr Paul Smith was taken ill during an over-50s’ session.
Lifeguards got Mr Smith out of the water and helped Mr Parlatt, a member of Southwell Defibrillator Group, to resuscitate him.
Mr Parlatt (56) of Crafts Way, Southwell, said: “I realised the man was blue around the lips and wasn’t breathing so I started CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) and asked one of the lifeguards to phone for an ambulance and get the leisure centre’s defibrillator, while I got another of the lifeguards to hold back the man’s head to keep his airway clear.”
Mr Parlatt used the defibrillator to shock Mr Smith’s heart.
“Thankfully he came round so we put him in the recovery position.”
Mr Smith (51) of Springfield Road, was taken to Lincoln County Hospital by air ambulance and was allowed home on Wednesday.
His sister, Mrs Jean Dodsworth, of Arnold Avenue, said he remembered little about the incident.
She said: “He had just done one length when he thought there was a lot of splashing around him, which he now realises was him, and the next thing he remembers is being on the side of the pool.
“He said he was so grateful that the people in the pool at the time acted so quickly and the person who administered the defibrillator obviously knew what he was doing. He really was a life-saver.
“If this had happened when my brother was out walking he wouldn’t be here so I cannot thank the people at the pool enough.”
Mr Parlatt, who helped to found the defibrillator group about five years ago, said: “It was a great outcome because he survived and is recovering.
“I don’t think you can ever get used to attending incidents like this because every person and situation is different.
“I would like to praise the boys from the leisure centre because they really were very alert to see the man in difficulty.”
Guards whistled to call a man in from the deep water about 2:30 p.m., Capt. Scott Petersohn said, and by the time he got back to the beach — south of the Plaza approach near Daytona Beach’s northern city limit — the swimmer was exhausted and suffered an apparent heart attack.
The 57-year-old man sat on the sand, out of breath, Petersohn said.
66-year-old Pat Dugan now knows life is too short. Last December, he was playing racquetball with his son Matt at an Omaha YMCA when his heart went into cardiac arrest, and he fell to the floor.
“When he dropped, we kind of nudged him a little because we thought he was joking,” Matt Dugan said. “Then one of the guys we were playing with said ‘I can’t find a pulse’ and I began trying to remember what I should do.”
“I did take CPR in 8th grade and then at college, so I somewhat knew what to do,” said Matt Dugan. But it wasn’t enough, so Matt called for help.
Also coming to Pat Dugan’s aid that day were off-duty Omaha firefighter Brad Witte, the YMCA’s aquatic director, Deb Munger, and head lifeguard Mike Ceeba.
Witte continued CPR while Munger attached an automated external defibrillator (AED) to shock Dugan’s heart back to life. Ceeba came running with an oxygen bag-valve mask to help him breathe.
Munger, who is certified to use the defibrillator, said it was the first time she had done so on a real patient.
“Luckily, my son was there and began CPR immediately,” Dugan said. “He also got the right people and the right equipment to me.”
Dugan was moaning and groaning when paramedics arrived to transport him to Lakeside Medical Center. He spent two days at the hospital before being released and is still trying to regain his full strength.
“If people - all people - would understand how to perform CPR, it would be a lifesaving accomplishment,” he said. “Having somebody there with CPR training and the right equipment made difference for me.”
“Our station is only a minute or two away, but even so, the patient was already shocked and breathing when we got here,” Vonderhaar said. “Those were critical steps and those people who took them are the real heroes.”
A YMCA lifeguard and an off-duty paramedic with Muskoka Emergency Medical Services rushed to his side, calling 911 and starting CPR.
A County of Simcoe Public Access Defibrillator was then successfully utilized to shock the man’s heart which had stopped beating.
The patient regained a heartbeat and was conscious and breathing on his own when paramedics arrived two minutes later.
He was transported to Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital and later transferred to Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket for emergency cardiac surgery.
The placement of the AED at the YMCA in Orillia was directed by the County of Simcoe Paramedic Services and made possible by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario’s Heart&Stroke Restart a Heart, Restart a Life Campaign and Chase McEachern Tribute Fund and a generous donation from Scotiabank.
On Aug. 3, Gerry Cook was at Spruce Beach in Elliot Lake enjoying the sunny day with family visiting from down south for the August long weekend.
Cook, an Elliot Lake resident since 1980, went for a swim, but almost didn’t make it back to the beach.
The 69-year-old Cook says he blacked out while in the water. It was his grandson who first noticed something was wrong because he could not see his grandfather.
Five city lifeguards were recognized at the Jan. 1 mayor’s levee, Craig Roy and Dylan Lees, who performed CPR on Cook, along with Leah deBortoli, Ben Shipman and Christina Ucci. They received certificates from the city for rescuing and resuscitating Cook at Spruce Beach.
Cook also went up front to personally thank the youths for saving his life.
As a result of their actions, the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation recognized the two lifeguards who performed CPR and the EFR firefighters for their efforts and awarded them a plaque for the lifeguards and certificates for the EFR firefighters.
A grateful Cook presented the plaques and certificates to the lifeguards and the firefighters.
“If it wasn’t for the co-ordinated efforts of all you people,” Cook told the group, “I probably would not be here today because it was so close.”
