STV NewsAn East Lothian dad whose heart stopped for four minutes after a sudden asthma attack is urging others to take the condition more seriously.
Jamie Bell, from Gullane, suffered a cardiac arrest in 2021 and was placed in an induced coma, with doctors warning his family to prepare for the worst.
Five years on, the 36‑year‑old father‑of‑two is preparing to run the Edinburgh Marathon next month – after discovering he’d been using the wrong type of inhaler for most of his life.
He told STV News: “My heart stopped for two minutes and then the ambulance came and they resuscitated me. Then again, for another two minutes later in the ambulance, my heart stopped again.
STV News“It was quite a scary thing to happen – especially for my wife Steph, who was holding our son at the time and witnessing it all.”
Jamie was placed in an induced coma as doctors assessed his condition.
Steph said: “There was a very low chance of survival, what happened to Jamie. I went through an amount of time believing that my life was going to be with one child and Jamie wasn’t going to be around.
“It was while Jamie was recovering in hospital that he learned more about his asthma, which he’d suffered from his entire life.”
Jamie later discovered he had been “mismanaging” his asthma.
“I just thought if I puff on my blue inhaler, my wheeze will go away – it was papering over the cracks,” he said.
“There are a lot of people like me with mild asthma who carry a blue inhaler around and think it’s never going to happen to them, but I’m living proof that it can.”
Jamie now uses a preventative inhaler twice a day, which he says has been transformative. He is running the Edinburgh Marathon for charity Asthma and Lung UK.
“I want to show people that having asthma doesn’t have to hold you back from physical challenges.
“Training has been brutal, especially through the winter months. Ironically, the best thing about the training has been my lung health and my breathing; it’s my body that’s in more pain.
“Ten years ago I wouldn’t be anywhere near a marathon – hopefully I can complete it, but we’ll see.”
STV NewsHe added: “I’m honestly fitter than I’ve been for 20 years. I can count on both hands how many times I’ve had to use my reliever in the last five years.
“I’m just living like a person who doesn’t have asthma.”
The couple’s eldest son Felix has also recently been diagnosed with asthma, but after Jamie’s experience, the family feel prepared.
After such a life-changing event, the family’s focus now is on raising awareness of the condition.
Steph said: “If one person watches this and goes to the doctors and they say, ‘hey, you’re on the wrong thing,’ and they get the right inhaler, I think that would be amazing, so they don’t go through what we went through or worse. So many people do every day, which is something that absolutely breaks my heart.”
Jamie added: “If I can help one person by sharing my story, then it’s worth it.”
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