NI woman clinically dead 10 minutes from undiagnosed FH — SkimNews
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- Sandra McCartney, 59, was clinically dead for 10 minutes on New Year's Eve 2019 after collapsing with a cardiac arrest during a Christmas holiday in Spain.
- Paramedics restored her heartbeat using six defibrillator shocks and five adrenaline doses once she had stopped breathing and lost her pulse.
- Sandra was later diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), an inherited condition affecting roughly 1 in 250–500 people that, if untreated, can cause early heart attacks.
- The British Heart Foundation estimates more than 250,000 people in the UK carry FH, but two-thirds of those carrying the gene remain undiagnosed.
- Northern Ireland runs a Belfast Health Trust screening service staffed by specialist nurses that contacts relatives of diagnosed patients, giving the region the highest FH detection rate in the UK.
- Sandra spent 11 days on a ventilator (with both lungs collapsing), suffered cracked ribs from CPR, developed PTSD, and now lives with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator; all four of her children tested clear for high blood pressure.
Why it matters: Northern Ireland's specialist-nurse screening program has driven the region's FH detection rate to the highest in the UK, yet the British Heart Foundation still estimates more than two-thirds of the UK's 250,000-plus FH carriers are undiagnosed — meaning relatives of cardiac arrest survivors remain a critical, largely untapped screening population whose early detection could prevent premature deaths.
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