Golf legend Bernard Gallacher remembers nothing about the day he nearly died. The ex-Ryder Cup captain had stood up to give an after-dinner speech to fans when his heart stopped without warning – just like footballer Christian Eriksen’s.
What he knows of the ensuing struggle to save his life was pieced together from stories he was told after he woke from a coma five days later.
One thing is certain, he would not be alive today had it not been for the venue’s defibrillator.
His heart stopped three times and on each occasion a defibrillator shocked it back into action.
That is why Bernard and his wife Lesley spearheaded a campaign to install the machines at hundreds of golf clubs across the UK and Ireland.
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Now he is backing the Mirror’s crusade to make it a legal requirement to have defibrillators in all schools, sports clubs and public places.
Bernard, 72, says: “I want to thank the Mirror for launching this campaign. It will save countless lives.
“I am very lucky to be alive. Once your heart stops there are only two things that can save you – CPR and a defibrillator.
“Every football club, golf club, and public place should have a defibrillator.
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“They cost so little and it only takes five or 10 minutes to train to use it.”
Bernard suffered a cardiac arrest, caused by a random gene that interfered with the electrical impulses controlling his heartbeat, during a hotel function in Aberdeen in August 2013.
Then 65, the Scottish golfer was fit and living in Ascot, Berks.
He regularly went to the gym and took long walks, did not smoke and drank moderately. There was no warning what was coming.
Bernard says: “Apparently, I started to go a bit grey and started to sweat but I can’t remember.
“Then I fell over like I’d been punched like a boxer.” Luckily, the audience included a nurse who was able to give CPR and the man who supplied the hotel’s defibrillator and trained staff to use it.
They revived Bernard and kept him alive until an ambulance arrived.
He says: “If there had been a bigger delay, I wouldn’t have survived.”
Luckier still, the event was running late that meant Bernard had only taken the floor when he collapsed, rather than being alone in his room.
Days later legendary broadcaster Sir David Frost was found dead in his cabin aboard the MS Queen Elizabeth cruise ship after his heart failed.
Lesley says: “Our daughter Laura is friends with one of David’s sons and he contacted her afterwards to say he was glad to hear Bernard was OK.”
But then his heart stopped twice on the 10-minute trip to the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
At the hospital Bernard was put in an ice blanket to cool his body to prevent brain damage. Lesley and the couple’s three children – TV presenter Kirsty, Laura and Jamie – kept vigil by his bedside.
Lesley says: “They didn’t expect him to pull through. It was awful.
“When he finally woke up, he didn’t know anything had happened. I was a wreck for months. I was terrified it would happen again.”
Bernard spent two weeks in hospital and had an implantable cardioverter defibrillator fitted to shock his heartbeat back into rhythm if needed.
It saved Bernard’s life twice in the months after his cardiac arrest.
He says: “A few weeks after I got home I was upstairs watching TV and could feel something was happening.
“I shouted down to Lesley but by the time she got there I had collapsed and my device kicked in and brought me round.
“It happened again when I was in my office alone.
“We told my consultant and he said, ‘At least we knew your device is working’.
“We just needed to rejig my pills and I been OK ever since.”
The couple teamed up with the Professional Golfers’ Association and the Arrhythmia Alliance to campaign for defibrillators to be installed in all UK and Irish golf clubs.
More than 700 clubs across the country now have a lifesaving device.
Lesley says: “We knew how lucky Bernard was and we wanted to make sure other people had the same chance of surviving.
But it wasn’t enough to install them. We found out the club where he worked had four defibrillators. We had no idea they were there.
“So we decided to get the clubs and members involved to raise the money to buy the defibrillators to make sure the members knew where they were.”
The first defibrillator installed was donated by Bernard and his family to the Bathgate Golf Club in Scotland, where he learned to play the sport.
And in 2015 the device was used to save golfer Craig Bowse, 42.
Bernard says: “Because they knew where the defibrillator was and how to use it, they were able to save his life.
“We know of several lives that have been saved as part of the campaign, but it’s incredible that the first was at Bathgate, where my journey started.”
Doctors initially warned Bernard he would never be able to play golf again as his swing might interfere with his ICD but those fears were unfounded.
He now plays twice a week and was appointed captain of the PGA in March. He also walks five miles or goes to the gym each day.
That offers hope for Danish star Christian Eriksen after his collapse at the Euros last week. Bernard says: “He should be able to lead a healthy life, but I’d be very surprised if he was allowed to play football again.
“The most important thing is to make sure his ICD is working properly.
“Other than that, he will be on pills for the rest of his life – I take five every day – and the battery in his defibrillator will run out in nine years’ time, so he’ll have a new one put in.
“I had that done a few weeks ago. The doctor said he’d see me in nine years’ time. I said, I hope so!
“Not everyone can be saved but everyone deserves the chance to be saved, like I was.”
