A martial arts fighter who 'died' for 20 minutes when his heart stopped while he was training says he is the ‘luckiest man alive’ after his sparring partner saved his life.
MMA exponent Mark Hobbs, 46, was practising when he suffered a cardiac arrest and his heart stopped. He was training with students Mark, 40, Julian Leone, 30, and Aaron, 17, when the instructor turned blue as he fell in a heap on the floor.
Aaron sprang into action and told Mark and Julian, to begin to perform CPR while Mark's son, Harry Hobbs, 19 - who was watching his dad - carried out mouth to mouth at Connetix Fight Club, East Grinstead, West Sussex.
Mark was 'dead for 20 minutes' before paramedics arrived and restarted his heart with a defibrillator.
He was put in an induced coma and taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital Brighton, Sussex where medics discovered that he had been living with three blocked arteries for many years.
Surgeons performed bypass surgery and remarkably Mark – who was told he had a 95 per cent risk of death - is now back at home and ready to start fighting again after making a miraculous recovery.
Mark, from East Grinstead, West Sussex, said: “There is no doubt about it - my students Julian, Mark and Aaron saved my life. Without their quick-thinking and swift actions, I don't think I would be here to tell the tale."
He added: "I had a bypass surgery, so they changed the four arteries going to my heart.
"They told me I had been living with three blocked arteries many years, but because I had a healthy heart which was in really good condition it had been overriding it.
Mark says he’s going to come back fighting even stronger and is back home with his wife Karen, 43, and his five sons. He is fundraising to raise cash to purchase more defibrillators. To donate, visit - https://gofund.me/e2d16a1d
For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.
