A mother of two who suffered a cardiac arrest while at a fitness class in November 2021, was recently able to meet the ambulance service colleagues who helped to save her life.

Molly Potter, now aged 26 from Polegate, East Sussex, was at a kickboxing class with her husband, Colin, and sister Amy, on the evening of 19 November 2021 when she collapsed to the floor in cardiac arrest. Molly’s next memory was waking up from a coma two weeks later in the intensive care unit at Eastbourne District General Hospital.

Once Molly awoke from the coma, she was transferred to the hospital ward for further care until she was discharged more than a month later on Christmas evening 2021 to go back home to her husband Colin and two young children, Albert aged two and Jacob aged four months at the time.

More than two years after the incident, Molly felt ready to learn more about what happened on the evening of her collapse and visited South East Coast Ambulance Service’s (SECAmb) Make Ready Centre in Polegate.

Molly and Colin met with Resource Dispatcher, Elena Rogers, Newly Qualified Paramedic, Ricky Braiden, Paramedics, Henry Seymour and Eleanor Reed and Operational Team Leader, Nicola Barnes, all of whom helped Molly on the evening of her cardiac arrest.

The five ambulance service colleagues who met with Molly and Colin were able to share some additional insights into the quick decisions that they made in order to stabilise her breathing and to get her to hospital as quickly as possible for further medical treatment. The crew were also extremely grateful for the high-quality CPR that Colin was able to perform on Molly following guidance from a friend, James, who was also on scene.

Since the incident Molly has joined various survivor groups and has also been back to visit the intensive care unit in order to aid her recovery. Molly also bravely ran a 10K race just nine months after being discharged to raise money for the Intensive Care Unit where she spent time following her collapse.

Molly has now returned to work and is working for local charity You Raise Me Up, who supports bereaved families. The kickboxing class also now has a community defibrillator on site, should anyone need to use it.

Colin said: “Molly was discharged from hospital on Christmas eve which meant we were able to spend Christmas together at home as a family – it was truly magical.”

Molly said: “It meant so much to me to be able to meet the crew who helped save my life. I now feel like I can close this chapter of my book. I cannot thank them enough.”

Elena said: “As a dispatcher, it’s rare we get to find out the result of a call, and so it was amazing for me to be able to meet Molly and see her doing so well in her recovery.”

Paramedic, Eleanor added: “I frequently visited Molly in the intensive care unit when I was at the hospital to see how she was doing, and so it was brilliant to be able to sit in front of her and her family to hear more about her journey to recovery. I’m so thankful that she is doing well.”