Mum whose teen suffered fatal cardiac arrest on New Year’s Day says Christmas is ‘too difficult’ to celebrate

A mum whose teenage son suffered a fatal cardiac arrest on New Year’s Day now devotes her time to having more defibrillators installed across the country but says it is “too difficult” to celebrate Christmas and instead the family bring food to their son’s grave.

Naomi Rees-Issit, 44, an employment law advisor from Rugby, Warwickshire, recalled the horror of receiving a phone call on the morning of January 1 2022 to say her child, Jamie Rees, 18, was in hospital after going into cardiac arrest at 2am during New Year’s Eve celebrations.

In Canada for her wedding anniversary at the time with her husband Jeremy Issit, 47, a railway engineer, Naomi raced back to the UK where Jamie’s father, Gavin Rees, 47, was by their son’s side.

Once there, the events of what happened that night unfolded and Naomi discovered Jamie had suffered oxygen starvation to the brain because there had been no available defibrillator available in the area.

On January 5 2022, Jamie passed away surrounded by family. His death saved an eight-month-old girl’s life by providing a partial liver donation, and Naomi has since campaigned to have 116 new defibrillators installed around the UK.

Now, the family mark Christmas by visiting Jamie’s grave with some of his favourite food and no longer wait up on December 31 to see in the New Year.

Naomi, who lives with Jeremy and her older son, Callum Rees, 23, told PA Real Life: “We didn’t celebrate Christmas last year and we probably won’t this year.

“Jamie’s birthday is in November so the Christmas period is just really difficult.

“There’s nothing in you that feels Christmassy or feels like celebrating because there’s always someone missing.”

Jamie spent New Year’s Eve at a friend’s house and was watching the fireworks with two friends and their parents when he complained that he “felt funny”.

Naomi was told that he had excused himself to stand outside but when a friend went to check on him, Jamie was slumped by a tree in the front garden and unresponsive.

Naomi said: “His friend shouted for his mum and they all came running out to Jamie and realised he wasn’t breathing, so his best friend started to do CPR and an ambulance was called at that point.”

Waiting for help, Jamie’s friends considered other options to find a defibrillator, including using the one at their local school but it would mean breaking into the building as it was not available outside.

Paramedics were by Jamie’s side 19-and-a-half minutes after he first went into cardiac arrest and, after getting his heart restarted, the teenager was rushed to Coventry University Hospital.

Spending New Year’s Eve in Canada celebrating her 10-year wedding anniversary, Naomi received a call at 3am UK time from Jamie’s dad.

She said: “I was being told that Jamie was at the hospital, he was still alive but he was very poorly and that I needed to get back immediately.

“I was already packing while on the phone.”

Getting on the next available flight, Naomi returned to the UK on January 2.

She said: “I knew I wasn’t coming back to a healthy boy, I was coming back to Jamie on life support and they were monitoring him really closely but on January 3, they realised that there had been more brain damage than what they’d originally thought and Jamie was sent down for some scans.”

That evening, Naomi and family were told that Jamie was not going to survive as the brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen while his heart was not beating was too severe.

However, Jamie was on the organ donor register and, with his family’s permission, they kept Jamie on life support for a further two days to nurse his organs until they were ready for their recipients.

“Even though we knew we were losing Jamie and that he wasn’t going to survive, they still carried on looking after him in the most respectful way,” Naomi said.

“We’re so grateful for those extra days. In those two days, I got to sleep with him, I got to bathe him, I got to wash his hair. We got to do things like taking his fingerprints, keep a lock of his hair, put the clothes on that he loved to be in.

“All his family travelled to see him and the hospital even let me take his dog in to see him – things like that now mean the absolute world to us.

“At the time it was horrific but when you look back on it now, we all got to see him and we all got to spend those few days with him.

“We put his car keys on his bed and ordered his favourite pizza which sat on his bed, it’s just silly things that meant so much to Jamie. We talked to Jamie non-stop and we laughed with him. We all got together and told stories around his bed.”

While Jamie never regained consciousness, doctors informed the family that his hearing would likely be the last thing to go and so they talked “constantly” to the teenager.

On January 5, 2022, Jamie passed away at the age of 18 surrounded by his family.

As Naomi, Jamie’s dad Gavin and Jamie’s brother Callum started to process their grief, they began testing to find out if they had any underlying heart problems.

Naomi said: “We got the final coroner’s report and she said it was the healthiest heart she’d ever seen.

“Now Callum is still waiting for a lot of his genetic testing and, even though we have the coroner’s report, we all watch him closely.

“We’ve had defibrillators installed at Callum’s gym, one at his work and we’ve got one in our home. We’ve ordered more for our cars too which may seem excessive to other people but, because of what we’ve been through, it gives us peace of mind.”

It was Callum who first came up with the idea of carrying on Jamie’s legacy through awareness on the importance of defibrillators.

Naomi said: “Three weeks after we lost Jamie, Callum had a conversation with me about buying an external cabinet for the school near where Jamie collapsed so that they could keep their defibrillator outside.”

Aiming to raise £500, the family set up a fundraising page and overnight raised £3,000, enough for the cabinet and to also install a new defibrillator at Jamie’s college.

Naomi added: “I never wanted Jamie to be that lad that died at New Year… I wanted his name and face to carry on.”

At Christmas, the family visit Jamie’s grave with some of his favourite food including pizza and, while they have a Christmas meal at home, they no longer celebrate the day.

At New Year, the family visit Jamie again before going to bed before midnight.

OurJay Foundation became a registered charity in October 2022 and since then has installed 116 accessible defibrillators across the UK.

Naomi said: “Some days I’d give anything to just lay in bed and pull the covers over my head and not do anything but Jamie was the most positive person you could ever meet.

“So I think to myself, ‘I’ll do what he’d want me to do’, and that’s get some more defibrillators out there and just keep going.”

Naomi’s family have several orders from CellAED – the world’s first personal defibrillator, which is portable and easy to use.

The mum hopes to raise awareness on personal defibrillators as public access ones are not always available.

She said: “I think there’s a misconception that because Jamie was out on New Year’s Eve that he was in a club and was drinking but he wasn’t, he was watching fireworks.

“Many cardiac arrests happen in normal houses in a normal community and, while there’s a lot of pressure for defibrillators to be put into sports grounds and town centres, you can just as easily have a cardiac arrest in your own home.”