'I hadn't ever been dead before': CTV News Vancouver's Mike McCardell and his cardiologist reflect on close call
Mike McCardell doesn’t remember much about those three days in September.
And what he does recall, he tries to reason, doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense.
“I was in a blackness – total, absolute blackness," he says. "I could touch the blackness, I could taste the blackness."
And somewhere in that, he thinks, was light.
“That’s what everybody wants to hear: you saw a light,” McCardell says. “Yeah I did, I saw a light. But it was red.”
McCardell laughs.
Somehow, in the span of a few short weeks, he seems to have grown uncomfortably at ease with the fact for a few moments or minutes, he’s not sure exactly how long, his heart shut down.
“The heart went out of rhythm, that’s all, like it was squirting out when it should have been squirting in,” he says. “And then it stopped.”
It wasn’t a heart attack.
But a type of irregular heartbeat known as ventricular fibrillation.
And it seemed to come out of nowhere, though in retrospect, McCardell says, those close to him, from his CTV News photographer, to his editor, to his wife’s boss, were telling him, he didn’t look well.
Hindsight being what it is, he admits, perhaps, he should have listened.
“Would I be bright enough to think that because I’m dizzy and I have to hold onto a wall and I have to sit down, that something’s wrong? No!” McCardell said.
His wife’s manager insisted on driving the pair to the UBC hospital.
McCardell took a few steps, then collapsed in the driveway
“(My doctor) said, 'I never expected to see you again, ever. You were dead,'” McCardell recalls.
An emergency room team, including Dr. Noah Alexander, as well as cardiologist Dr. Graham Wong, brought McCardell back to life.
“He knew what he was doing so he crushed right through the ribs, broke two ribs so he could get right to the heart,” McCardell says.
Wong calls McCardell lucky.
He describes the cardiac arrest as “an electrical problem where the rhythm of the heart changed from a regular one to a chaotic one.”
Something, Wong says, that unlike a heart attack, doesn’t often come with clear warning signs, and even if it did, they're typically unique to each person.
“The heart, essentially, instead of beating, quivers,” Wong says.
McCardell was placed into a coma.
His body temperature was regulated.
And he was transferred to Vancouver General Hospital’s cardiac intensive care unit.
Somewhere in those three days, he received a special implant.
“This is me and my defibrillator,” McCardell says, showing me the outline, about the circumference of a golf ball, under his breast pocket.
“If it gets out of beat, this thing sends a shock to it. A very strong shock, like the kick of a horse, I’m told.”
He doesn’t want to find out.
Wong calls the “fancy pacemaker” like a “paramedic in your pocket."
“Almost like an insurance policy,” Wong says. “You hope you never need to use it.”
“I feel better. I feel lucky. I feel blessed. I feel amazed,” McCardell says.
We're interrupted when a golden leaf falls from a tree above us right into his hand.
He smiles: "Holy mackerel!"
And Wong adds one big reason McCardell likely survived is not luck, but because of where he collapsed, with trained professionals just seconds away.
He’s now advocating for anyone who is able to get trained in how to administer CPR with organizations like the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, or St. John's Ambulance.
“Anybody can save a life,” Wong says.
And when I ask McCardell what advice he might give to his former self?
“Listen to your camera guy, listen to your editor, whoever it is, your wife,” he says.
“If they say you look crummy and you should go to a doctor, go to a doctor.”
“Now I’m officially not dead,” McCardell adds.
“So do I have something to be thankful for? You bet!”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Demonstrators kicked out of Ontario legislature for disruption after failed keffiyeh vote
A group of demonstrators were kicked out of the legislature after a second NDP motion calling for unanimous consent to reverse a ban on the keffiyeh failed to pass.
RCMP uncovers alleged plot by 2 Montreal men to illegally sell drones, equipment to Libya
The RCMP says it has uncovered a plot by two men in Montreal to sell Chinese drones and military equipment to Libya illegally.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
Government agrees to US$138.7M settlement over FBI's botching of Larry Nassar assault allegations
The U.S. Justice Department announced a US$138.7 million settlement Tuesday with more than 100 people who accused the FBI of grossly mishandling allegations of sexual assault against Larry Nassar in 2015 and 2016, a critical time gap that allowed the sports doctor to continue to prey on victims before his arrest.
Man wanted in connection with deadly shooting in Toronto tops list of most wanted fugitives in Canada
A 35-year-old man wanted in connection with the murder of Toronto resident 29-year-old Sharmar Powell-Flowers nine months ago has topped the list of the BOLO program’s 25 most wanted fugitives across Canada, police announced Tuesday.
Doctors ask Liberal government to reconsider capital gains tax change
The Canadian Medical Association is asking the federal government to reconsider its proposed changes to capital gains taxation, arguing it will affect doctors' retirement savings.
Pro-Palestinian protests roiling U.S. colleges escalate with arrests, new encampments and closures
The student protests of Israel's war with Hamas that have been creating friction at U.S. universities escalated Tuesday as new encampments sprouted and some colleges encouraged students to stay home and learn online, after dozens of arrests across the country.
Tabloid publisher says he pledged to be Trump campaign's 'eyes and ears' during 2016 race
A veteran tabloid publisher testified Tuesday that he pledged to be Donald Trump 's 'eyes and ears' during his 2016 presidential campaign, recounting how he promised the then-candidate that he would help suppress stories that had the potential to harm the Republican's election bid.
Keeping these exotic pets is 'cruel' and 'dangerous,' Canadian animal advocates say
Canadian pet owners are finding companionship beyond dogs and cats. Tigers, alligators, scorpions and tarantulas are among some of the exotic pets they are keeping in private homes, which pose risks to public safety and animal welfare, advocates say.