“I owe them everything!” Fast-track cardiac arrest care saves man’s life after airport collapse
Thursday 16 October is Restart a Heart Day, and a man whose heart was restarted after suffering a sudden cardiac arrest at London Stansted Airport is now recovering well, thanks to action from bystanders and a pioneering hospital transfer pathway.
This gets patients with cardiac arrest and life-threatening heart rhythms straight to specialist care at the world-renowned Essex Cardiothoracic Centre (CTC) at Basildon Hospital – the only centre in the country to run this kind of direct-access pathway.
When David Marshall, 74, from Nottinghamshire, collapsed without warning while passing through the airport on his way from Ireland to France, other passengers stepped in immediately. They performed CPR, saving his brain from damage before emergency crews arrived.
He said: “I just remember trying to get around a woman in front of me, and then nothing. I woke up the next day, confused, but alive. Then the doctors spent time showing me my scans, explaining what had happened. I owe them everything and they made me feel like I was worth saving. I’ll never forget that.”
This transfer decision-making protocol, designed with the British Cardiovascular Intervention Society, was pioneered across Essex and is designed to fast-track patients whose cardiac arrest is due to heart problems like blocked arteries or rhythm disturbances.
Those whose hearts can be restarted with a defibrillator are taken directly to the CTC, with no delay to referral or approval and their treatment begins immediately.
Dr Uzma Sajjad, Cardiology Research Registrar at Essex CTC, said: “David arrived in a critical condition, but because our team was already alerted due to this pathway, we were able to act straight away. The quick response made all the difference to his recovery.
“It’s designed exactly for moments like that – getting patients who’ve had a cardiac arrest straight to specialist care without delay. Often, it’s that immediate access to the right treatment that can mean the difference between life and death.”
With patients now getting faster access to the right treatment and survival rates almost doubling in Essex, the pathway is being held up as a model for wider adoption across the NHS.
Since the introduction of the protocol in October 2022, survival for the cardiac arrest patients arriving at the Essex Cardiothoracic Centre has increased from 18% to 34% (up to October 2025).