A mum has opened up about her daughter’s rare health condition after finding her minutes away from dying when she heard her cough in the night. It was a normal evening that turned into a nightmare
It was like any other Saturday night for one family, but when a mum heard a small noise coming from her daughter’s bedroom, she knew something was wrong.
Jayne Biggs, from Norfolk, was downstairs in their family home when she suddenly heard her seven-year-old daughter, Violet, cough upstairs. Instinct took over, and she went up to check on Violet in her bedroom.
“I literally heard her cough upstairs and I thought, ‘I bet she’s messing around’. But I went to her room, and she had totally stopped breathing”, Jayne exclusively told the Mirror. “At first, I thought she had choked on sick.”
Her little girl had suddenly gone into cardiac arrest, and in a state of shock, Jayne and her husband performed CPR. “I just knew she wasn’t going to get another breath,” the mum admitted..
“I started CPR and screamed to my husband, and he took over from me, and I dialled 999. Me, and my husband performed CPR on Violet for seven minutes.”
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Paramedics arrived at their house within seven minutes, where they shocked Violet once with a defibrillator and performed CPR for a further two minutes. She was rushed to hospital and thankfully survived the terrifying ordeal.
“It happened so quickly, it was a blur, and then we didn’t know if she’d be brain-damaged,” Jayne explained. “We were just so blessed that it was an absolute miracle that Violet made it.
“She competed in ballroom and Latin dance competitions. She was a really active little girl and had never, ever been poorly, ever. But then she was in hospital.”
Violet spent a month in the hospital and was diagnosed with a sudden death condition called Long QT Syndrome. This is a rare heart condition that can cause serious problems with the heart rhythm, leading to sudden cardiac arrest.
To manage the condition, Violet was given an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) that monitors the heart 24 hours a day and provides an automatic shock if necessary.
Reflecting back to that traumatic day in February 2013, Jayne said: “It was about 11pm when I went up to check on Violet. All my friends say, ‘Why did you go up?’ and I don’t know why I went up, it was just pure fate.
“If I hadn’t checked on her that evening, she would have been dead the following morning when I went into her bedroom. Me and my husband Tony doing that CPR for seven minutes saved her.
“One minute it was Saturday night, everything was normal, and the next, our life changed forever.”
Jayne and Tony had both worked in the offshore industry and had received first aid training. “We’d only learnt it at work, we weren’t medical professionals or anything, but you don’t think you’re going to have to do it on a member of the family, let alone your own child,” the mum shared.
After her daughter’s cardiac arrest, Jayne launched her charity Heart 2 Heart Norfolk to help install more defibrillators with public access across the country. So far, she has helped install more than 400 defibrillators, which are available 24/7 and are not shut behind closed doors.
Jayne said: “People say to me, ‘We should get a defib because everyone around here is old’, but sudden cardiac arrest doesn’t discriminate against anyone, twelve people under 35 people die from sudden cardiac arrest every week.
“Christian Eriksen suffered a sudden cardiac arrest in the Euros, and he is the first person to play professional football again with an ICD.
“I have defibs used every single week and I know of four lives that have been saved from people who have contacted me. I have dozens of defibrillators used, but now with GDPR, unless someone contacts me, I don’t find out any information.
“Nearly every single defib you see across the country is there because someone like me, or someone who has tragically lost someone, has raised money for one. They’re not government or NHS-funded. If you see one and look at the box, it will probably have a charity logo or a dedication sign to someone.”
Jayne is continuing to raise funds for more defibrillators to be installed across the UK and has provided thousands of people with CPR and defibrillation training through her free community sessions.
Jayne raises crucial funds for her charity, Heart 2 Heart Norfolk, through online shoppers. Supporters can raise donations via the easyfundraising website and app, where Heart 2 Heart Norfolk is a registered cause.
Once supporters have signed up to easyfundraising and chosen Heart 2 Heart Norfolk as their cause, the retailers they shop with via the easyfundraising website – from John Lewis to Just Eat – will automatically donate a percentage of their purchase to Heart 2 Heart Norfolk without adding any extra expense to their bill.
Jayne shared: “I say to friends, ‘it doesn’t cost you anything, it’s easy money’, for instance, I just booked my holiday through TUI via easyfundraising and raised £80 by doing nothing other than logging in via easyfundraising first. It’s such a good way to make money without the hard work. I’m 100% non-profitable, so everything that’s raised stays in the community.”