// BBC HEALTH NEWS — SALUTE
'I was dead for 10 minutes, but lived to tell the tale'
Sandra McCartney says she is lucky to be alive after going into cardiac arrest on holiday
On New Year's Eve of 2019 Sandra McCartney was clinically dead for 10 minutes.
She was 59 when she collapsed during a Christmas holiday in Spain, lost consciousness, stopped breathing and had no pulse or heartbeat after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Sandra's life was saved when medics managed to restore a normal heart rhythm during a frantic race against time when paramedics gave her "six defibrillator shocks and five shots of adrenaline".
Her life may have been turned upside down in that moment but she believes she had been living with a ticking time bomb long before that.
Sandra found out that the heart attack and cardiac arrest were triggered by a life-threatening genetic condition called "familial hypercholesterolaemia" (FH).
It causes high cholesterol and, if untreated, can lead to early heart attacks and heart disease.
A decade after a critical health service review, has there been any change?
Trust 'committed to improving facilities' with £2.5m investment in Altnagelvin ED
Dáithí Mac Gabhann returns home after heart transplant