Two cyclists tackling Mont Ventoux are recovering in hospital after suffering heart attacks hours apart while climbing the mountain on their bikes yesterday – and in both cases, the prompt use of a defibrillator may have helped save their lives.
Both men are now recovering in hospital in Avignon where they were taken by air ambulance after being treated by first aid responders from Carpentras, reports the Dauphiné Libéré.
The first incident happened at a little after 10am, close to Chalet Reynard, which last month provided the finish line of the Bastille Day stage of the Tour de France after the route was shortened by 6 kilometres due to strong winds on the bare upper slopes.
Another cyclist who happened to be a doctor used a defibrillator on the 40-year-old victim before first responders from the fire station in Carpentras arrived.
At around 2pm, another rider, aged 60, suffered a cardiac arrest at the summit of the mountain and was given first aid by a fireman who was on holiday, including using a defibrillator kept at the observatory there.
A third rider, a male aged 32, had to be evacuated from the mountain yesterday after injuring his collarbone in a crash, reports the newspaper.
While the nationalities of the cyclists concerned has not been reported, Mont Ventoux is particularly popular with riders from Britain, many of whom ride it in tribute to Tom Simpson, who died there during the 1967 Tour de France.
Given next year marks the 50th anniversary, it’s likely many will be planning a trip there next summer, with previous anniversaries such as the 40th marked by organised tribute rides.
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21 thoughts on “Two cyclists on Mont Ventoux saved with help of defibrillators after suffering heart attacks hours apart”
Bloody hell, hope they pull
Bloody hell, hope they pull through. Good luck guys!
A lot of Brits aren’t used to intensity in the heat. Always thought I’d be okay until I did a marathon in Tenerife. Genuinely thought I was going to end up in a tent at the end of it. Really nasty stuff. Can’t see me ever planning a race in a really hot country again.
Very unlikely to be a heart
Very unlikely to be a heart attack if they used a defibrillator, much more likely to be a cardiac arrest. The two are very different things, please learn the difference before posting misleading headlines.
Welsh boy wrote:
Quote from the London Ambulance Service: “Many Cardiac Arrests are caused by Heart Attacks”
Quote from Britsh Heart Foundation” A person having a heart attack is at high risk of experiencing a cardiac arrest”.
Yes the two are different, but they often travel in pairs.
Griff500 wrote:
My e-penis is bigger than yours, and that’s really important.
Very sad news. Though more
Very sad news. Though more likely to be a cardiac arrest than heart attacks. Cardiac arrest is an electrical fault while a heart attack is blocked arteries i believe. Happy to be corrected on this though
I’ve had both a heart attacks
I’ve had both a heart attacks which you can almost ignore sometimes just feeling like an ache somewhere, for me in my stomache and a cardiac arrest which is fatal unles you get fairly immediate help. As the ambulance service said they often go together. In my case the CA came 36 hours after the HA but they can occur at the same time.
because of this if you ever experience chest pains seek help immediately you are at immediate risk of having a cardiac arrest. The ambulance service told me they never mind if it turns out to be chest pains.
Not just road.cc but the press in general do not understand the difference between the two and also “heart failure” they are three seperate things but the press use them completely interchangeably sometimes all three in one paragraph. Also in the press you never have a HA without it being “massive”. Mine was on the serious side and I was told I was lucky to have survived it but no doctor ever called it massive.
In this country less than 20% of people having an arrest outside of hospital survive so for two patients in France to be still alive means someone should be proud.
Other countries have much better survival rates and often CPR is on the school curriculum. It would take about an hour for children to learn and I cannot imagine many parents would object as the most likely beneficiary wiould be themselves.
Shamefully MPs blocked a bill that would have seen this small but valuable change http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-mps-block-bill-to-give-first-aid-training-to-children-by-talking-until-time-runs-out-a6742251.html
ooldbaker wrote:
Thanks for sharing, hope you’re now in good health.
Grahamd wrote:
Thank you, never better, thanks to going on 20,000 miles cycled. I had not got on a bike since my teen years before but someone gave me a bike they were going to throw away as I was unable to drive for 6 months. I now, 4 years later, do 100 miles a week. Not the fastest but not bad for a 57 year old who needed a wheelchair to leave hospital.
ooldbaker wrote:
An inspiration to us all.
Griff500 wrote:
Thank you, never better, thanks to going on 20,000 miles cycled. I had not got on a bike since my teen years before but someone gave me a bike they were going to throw away as I was unable to drive for 6 months. I now, 4 years later, do 100 miles a week. Not the fastest but not bad for a 57 year old who needed a wheelchair to leave hospital.
— ooldbaker An inspiration to us all.— Grahamd
Any credit goes to the cardiac dept. Dorset County Hospital.
ooldbaker wrote:
Agree regarding compulsory first aid training – seem to recall you can’t drive in Germany without having been trained, and they do it in senior school. The old man had 5 CA’s, a first-aider kept him going until the ambulance arrived and he’s still here 11 years later. Took ambulance 8 minutes to reach him, survival rate without CPR for that length of time is basically zero so he’s here for that reason alone. Its simple, anyone can do it (although its bloody knackering – 8 minutes of CPR I would imagine is pretty similar to a 10% climb for that length of time) and lives will be saved.
Practical advice – download the St Johns Ambulance app to your phone which lists community defibs – those are also fully automatic and utterly idiot proof.
I was up there on Thursday.
I was up there on Thursday. Arrived at the summit moments after the guy suffered his “cardiac episode” in the middle of the road. Couple of guys working flat out to keep him alive, crowd kept a respectful distance, traffic was gridlocked and looked like being stuck there for hours. Absolute bedlam. Glad he pulled through.
tomisitt wrote:
I too was on the mountain on thursday. Was there for the first guy. Busy day not actually that hot for riding at 10am when the first accident happened. After midday was awful I admit, dangerous yes.
At 10am I was about 4th or 5th person at the scene, I thought it was a puncture as it looked like someone frantically putting 120psi in a tyre using a mini pump, but as I rolled up it was someone already doing chest compressions.
They asked if I was a doctor I said no, two guys were doing Continuous Chest Compression which I have watched about on the Internet. every so often they did a pause to give two breaths into the mouth cpr style. They were not sure if what they were doing was correct, or if it was working but well all knew they had to try something, and we needed help fast. The first car at the scene got sent up to chalet reynard some 300 meters up the road. A call was made to the pompiers and an immediate request for an air ambulance made. The guy looked dead. It was just a dead body. no pulse, no response, no breathing.
There were about 10 of us now offering help, all with a bit of knowledge on what to do from many different nations. It was desperate, chaotic. We all had patches of information but no one had real trainning. The guy was ghost white, a dead body. The guys pumping the chest were doing a perfect job from what I could remember from youtube videos on the subject – hard and fast – so I took over traffic duties, warning descending cars/cyclist and moving on car’s who were no help as we had taken up one lane of the road, keeping road clear for help when ever it might arrive.
After 6 or 7 minutes of me being there, probably 9 or 10 minutes for the guy the defibrillator arrived in a small backpack bag by a guy running from down chalet reynard. He knew how to use it and it was like on TV making noise staying keep clear etc and a minute later it did its shock and worked first time. I think it was used a few more times as the guy was still not responding to us, but I saw him take a tiny breath. I was busy with traffic as gradually more help arrived and needed to be parked, a police car, army trucks with only a young driver in, and empty pompier van with a young lad, a small medical car. The air ambulance arrived at chalet renard after roughly 25 minutes and they had everything required, oxygen and mask, injections etc. The police car went and got them which was smart. I saw the guy open and close his eyes on request and respond in shock when told he was on ventoux. A second pompier van arrived with a stretcher with the plan to take him up to the helicopter.
When the police were not needed with the guy, they came and took over my traffic organisation. 45 minutes after I stopped to help I rode on.
Later in the day when I was coming back up I saw the guy who did most the chest compressions descending looking rather happy. So I guess the guy lived and his brain was ok ish as he went into the ambulance. For me it messed me up big time. To see someone so similar to me just dead on the road doing what I do most days. He was so lucky it was a busy day with a number of people who had their shit together to help, and to be in range of the defibrillator. not bang in the middle of the climb, and to have someone who could use it. It was a shitshow at the time, lots of panic, fear of doing the wrong thing, keep his head walm or cold? but somehow everyone despite being from many differnt nations speaking second lanugages to communcate, teamed together to help him live. From offering a random pillow at the start, to looking for a pulse while others pumped the chest, to the lady holding a drip for the ambulance crew. Even the people arrived a little late, who didn’t have medical knowlegde and kept cycling to get out the way, that was the right thing to do. So many people combined to give him a chance to live.
I know its a lot of text, it effected my day I ended my ride slowly and early, then haven’t done anything of note today. Wanted to get it off my chest and hopefully convince some cyclists to watch some constant chest compressions videos. Get on your knees and go though the act of doing it. It gives the brain 10 minutes of oxygen, sure it doesn’t work often but that guy would have been dead with out it. Thank who ever thought to put a defibrillator there at the cafe and at the top, we need more of those around. Many french vilages have them outside town halls. He was dead, clinically dead for 10 minutes. and yet, he might live.
velopup wrote:
Wow. Some advice on defibs – anyone can use them, the ones in the UK have voice instruction and won’t work if you haven’t set it up right (and won’t shock in error if there is actually a heartbeat). Undoubtedly the chest compressions are why he is still here so top job by the guys doing those. You mentioned keeping the head hot/cold – cold would be better but I doubt you could do anything about that on Ventoux on summer – his core temp would be through the roof.
kil0ran wrote:
It was a german who intervened when the guys body got given a jacket to keep it warm, he insisted to keep the head cool to avoid brain damage.
The situation was crazy, so many cooks involved yet looking back with all the wealth of the intenets information… it looks like the group of random international strangers did everything right.
Of course they may have had
Of course they may have had VT (Ventricular Tachycardia). This can also lead to a cardiac arrest. I had this last December whilst cycling and it ain’t funny. Fortunately I got blue lighted to Lancaster R I just in the nick of time !
Smart thinking to have an AED
Smart thinking to have an AED there.
http://www.bhf.org.uk/heart
http://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-health/how-to-save-a-life/how-to-do-cpr
http://www.bhf.org.uk/heart
sorry duplicate post
Some pretty sobering stuff
Some pretty sobering stuff here and I am glad all these stories have ended well.
It’s exhaustion/riding in the heat that spooks me, especially for us Brit riders. I had a crack at the cingles at the end of July and had no problem on the first ascent from maulacene but the second one, starting from Bedoin absolutely cooked me in the forest, even at 10am. The dehydration left me nauseous and dizzy in a way I’d never felt before as a result of the heat. At the back of my mind is always the thought that there is no point in crazy heroics.
Well done everyone involved in the rescues detailed above. Two riders are undoubtedly still alive as a result of your heroic interventions.
It is very important to be
It is very important to be well hydrated when taking on big rides in warm weather. Electrolytes are vital to keep the electrical impulses that trigger the heart muscles working properly. It is quite likely that the normal rhythm of the heart has been interrupted causing something for eg VT . This if not treated fairly rapidly as this can/will cause a cardiac arrest. Defibrillators can be used to to shock the the heart back to life or restore an abnormal rhythm such as ventricular tachycardia – VT.
It is often assumed that someone has “had a heart attack”. It is however wise to treat the patient for such until this has been medically established .