Netherlands men’s head coach Ryan Campbell has appeared on Australian radio discussing his cardiac arrest late last month.
Campbell was rushed to a hospital in Stoke, and forced into an induced coma for over a week. After pulling through with no damage to the brain or long term effects to his heart, Campbell was discharged on Monday.
Checking in with Triple M in Perth, Campbell admits he has little memory of the ordeal in hospital.
“I have no recollection (of the induced coma),” Campbell said.
“When I woke up I was a bit confused, I thought I was in Hong Kong (where Campbell played and coached), and I was asking my wife why I was in Hong Kong without my kids. Seven days of my life I will never remember.
“My daughter wanted to go on the slide and I was sort of up there, and then for some reason I was tired and decided to lie down.”
Luckily, Beci Bassett, the woman who saved Campbell, was within metres and had recently completely her CPR training.
“The lucky thing was I actually lied down on the foot of a young girl whose mother (Bassett) was the one that saved my life with CPR,” Campbell added.
“She had just literally finished her course. Just a surreal experience.
“I actually had lunch with her yesterday. What do you say to someone who saved your life? It was a pretty cool experience to be honest.
“I think my odds were like 7% or something, which means I get a second crack at it and I’m gonna make sure I live it to the most.”
Campbell will re-join the Dutch setup, though it’s unclear as yet if he will oversee the team’s next assignment, the West Indies, at the end of the month.
“I’m actually not allowed to fly for a couple of months, so we’re actually getting the ferry back (to the Netherlands).
“I’m looking forward to going home and getting back into a routine and seeing my cricket team again and seeing how they’re going, but we won’t be rushing back into it.”
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