VIDEO: Devoted woman whose partner’s heart stopped beating for 10 minutes says his first words on waking from a coma were: “Will you marry me?”

A devoted woman who feared her partner was dead when his heart stopped beating for 10 minutes says it felt like “winning the lottery” when his first words after waking from a coma were: “Will you marry me?”

Now happily married to banker Paul Smith, 63,  his wife Sahika Smith, 38, relived her terror when she thought she had seen the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with take his last breath.

Luckily, after collapsing at their home in Deptford, south east London, not only did Paul survive, but he proposed – only to forget everything, meaning Sahika then had to effectively return the compliment by reminding him she had agreed to be his wife.

Recalling the terrifying incident when Paul suffered a cardiac arrest on February 12, 2019, Sahika, who does not work, said: “I knew it was going to be a very long night when I saw Paul in pain and crying. He was a 61-year-old man reduced to tears by the pain he was in.

“Those 10 minutes when his heart stopped felt like a lifetime.

“I thought he was dead, I was terrified. I heard his last breath, and I thought that was it.”

That evening, “fit and healthy” Paul had been out for dinner with an old friend at a steakhouse near London Bridge in south east London, when he started having indigestion and chest pains.

Paul still has no recollection of events either leading up to his collapse or straight after he regained consciousness but, luckily, intuition told Sahika  there was something seriously wrong when she picked him up at the train station five minutes from their home, so she called 999.

Luckily, the former waitress’ quick thinking saved his life.

She said: “Paul stopped me twice from calling the ambulance, but I ignored him. He was too important to me not to.

“I’m so grateful to the two young paramedics who saved his life. Every day I spend with him now feels like I’ve won the lottery.”

On the night Paul fell ill, when the ambulance arrived at their two-bed house within minutes of her calling, the paramedics carried out multiple procedures, including an electrocardiogram (ECG) to check his heart’s rhythm,  but found nothing wrong.

But, as they prepared to get him into the ambulance for further checks at University Hospital Lewisham, he collapsed and they sprang into action, performing life-saving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) – applying chest compressions to manually preserve the brain function.

Distraught Sahika, who is originally from Turkey,  was too distressed to watch  as more paramedics arrived to help and recalls sobbing in the kitchen – convinced Paul was dead.

She said: “They started performing CPR so I went to the kitchen. I thought he was dead and I didn’t know what to do.”

She added: “After 10 minutes I was going in and out. He had gone purple and there was no sign of breathing.

“The paramedics were all so calm and professional, they were fantastic. They never gave up on him.

“When I heard Paul was back I was overjoyed. It felt like a miracle.”

She was even more astonished when she heard that dad-of-three Paul, who has been married before, is one of only one in 10 people who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests to survive in the UK, according to the British Heart Foundation.

She said: “I’d never seen anyone have a heart attack before, but my intuition told me what was happening was serious.

“We were so lucky the ambulance  arrived so quickly.”

She added: “The paramedic who performed CPR said she had only just completed her training and Paul was her first cardiac arrest.”

Rushed to University Hospital Lewisham in the early hours of February 13, after his heart restarted, Paul was placed in a medically induced coma in intensive care, to stabilise his heart and find out what was wrong.

The next few days passed in a haze of tears, as doctors could not tell Sahika how long Paul would remain in a coma for and, when they tried to revive him, it was a struggle.

She said: “I spent the whole time crying.

“They tried to wake Paul up again, but he wasn’t responding to anyone. He was like a zombie.

“He was pale, and strange looking. I could tell when they were trying to wake him up that it was not positive.”

She added: “A doctor was so kind. He told me they would try to wake Paul up every day and that he would wake up.

“I was going every single day. I thought he’d be in a coma for a long time and I thought I’d lost him again.”

But, on the second day, after Sahika went in to speak to Paul, she noticed him smile and at last had a glimmer of hope.

She said: “When I went in and said, ‘ Paul, darling,’ he started to smile. It was like he was following my voice.

“I thought he was going to come back to me, even if they were unable to wake him up.”

The following day, on February 15, Paul woke up, held Sahika’s hand while she cried and suddenly spoke, saying: “Will you marry me?”

Immediately agreeing, Sahika wanted to do it there and then.

She said: “I said, ‘Let’s do it now in the hospital.’

“We were going to be together through thick and thin. I knew he couldn’t live without me. He proved it that day!”

But they waited a while – tying the knot on January 10 2020, at the register office in Lewisham, next-door to the hospital where Paul’s life was saved, with seven people in attendance.

She said: “When he proposed I felt great and full of love.

“I cherish every moment with him.”

Sadly, Paul’s romantic proposal was lost on on him, as he had no memory of anything that happened 36 hours before or after he came out of the coma – so forgot that he had asked Sahika to marry him.

Luckily, he was delighted when she told him they were engaged and, like her, wanted to marry as soon as possible.

Paul said: “I was delighted to find out I was engaged.”

He added: “In that moment, I must have realised I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Sahika.

“It could have been an utterly catastrophic day, if I’d had the cardiac arrest on the train and not at home.

“Timing was everything. I could have died and I’d never have all of this.”

Spending 10 days in the Lewisham hospital after his ordeal,  he was then transferred to the London Bridge Hospital on February 23 to have stents fitted to hold his arteries open.

This happened after doctors identified that he had two blocked arteries which had caused the cardiac arrest.

Now a grandad, after his first grandchild was born last summer, Paul, who is on blood thinners but is otherwise able to live normally, is eternally grateful to the paramedics, who he has now met up with and thanked in person for saving his life.

He said: “I am so grateful to the paramedics and to Sahika, who realised how poorly I was.

“If it wasn’t for all of them, I wouldn’t be here now.

“I’m so happy. The experience hasn’t changed me, but it’s given me more gusto. It’s given me more appreciation for life.”

He added: “Our anniversary each year is a reminder of how brilliant and beautiful life is.

“Eighteen months on, I’ve met my first grandchild, which wouldn’t have happened without these amazing people. That’s so significant to me.”

Advanced Paramedic Nick Sillett, who was part of the team that saved Paul’s life,  was delighted to meet him again.

He said: “It was an absolute pleasure to meet Paul and Sahika and to see how well they are both doing.

“It takes a team to save a life – from vehicle technicians ensuring we have working vehicles and procurement ensuring we have the right kit, to call handlers, dispatchers and paramedics.

“As an Advanced Paramedic, I was only one part of that team, and I am just pleased we were all able to help when Paul needed us.”