When Rhys White’s mum kissed her son goodbye before jetting off for a short trip to Queensland, she asked him to take it easy and hold back on doing anything too physical while his parents were out of town.
He was a healthy 20-year-old but had a heart condition that had been diagnosed a few years earlier that always worried his parents and they wanted him to be safe when they were out of reach.
So Rhys decided to ‘take it easy’ by playing some basketball with his mates – a decision that may have actually saved his life.
While shooting hoops just next to Sydney’s idyllic Balmoral Beach, Rhys dropped to the ground. His mates thought he was joking until he didn’t move and started to change colour.
Thankfully the boys all knew how to administer CPR and there was an AED close by.
Rhys clearly had luck on his side that day as at the same time, a doctor and nurse happened to be walking past and assisted the boys until paramedics arrived to take over.
With the quick work of his friends and the doctor – together with the brilliant work of the paramedics who treated him and rushed him to hospital – Rhys became a very rare statistic.
He became an out of hospital cardiac arrest survivor.
With the odds stacked against him – only one in 10 will survive such a situation – Rhys and his family will forever be grateful for those who helped him stay alive that day.
And as part of Restart a Heart Day, held each year on 16 October, Rhys got to thank those who went above and beyond that terrifying day in January.
Inspector Carolyn Parish, Intensive Care Paramedic Jordan Phillips and Paramedic James Laver, together with Rhys’s family and the friends who helped him, met back at the park.
Paramedics have never been busier, especially in the past two years, and it was a moving moment when Rhys met the men and women in blue who turned up that day.
There were tears and laughs and two parents who were beyond thankful to everyone who was there for their son that day.
“Thank you for saving my life,” Rhys said to the paramedics.
Inspector Parish said it was a rare moment when paramedics get to meet the people they treat.
"We don't often get to see the long term results of our work - many paramedics can go for years without getting the opportunity to meet up with someone they have helped," she said.
"So to catch up with Rhys and his family and hear about how well he's doing, it was very touching. It really brings home what we do every day.
"With the odds stacked against him, Rhys's mates really stepped up. They provided effective CPR on that basketball court and with the use of a defib that was thankfully close by, were instrumental in keeping him alive until we got on scene," Inspector Parish said.
“They should be exceptionally proud and it just goes to show how important it is to start CPR quickly and have easy access to an AED – it can absolutely be the difference between life and death."