Thomas Ravelli saved a man’s life by using his own pacemaker.
The soccer legend changed Sunday’s routine and took a different path than usual.
– I am very happy that I saved someone’s life, it is a service, says the 63-year-old former national team goalkeeper.
Thomas Ravelli He is an ambassador for Hjärtuppropet.
Thanks to that, the whole family went through a CPR course last winter and has a pacemaker at home.
During the day, he would repair equipment to erect outside the house and announce that it was available to the public.
On Sunday, I woke up tired and ate a late breakfast, so I chose not to take my wife and daughter out and run to stay home. Then I wondered if I should run or walk. I ended up walking faster, in a different way than usual and at a different time, says Thomas Ravelli.
On the balcony without signs of life
On the way back, very close to home in Mölnlycke, he asked to choose a route and take a different tour than usual.
– Then a guy on a bike like Jihu came at an intersection, I hardly saw him at the intersection. I didn’t really understand what was going on, but I picked up on the word pacemaker. I cried for him where he was, and called my wife out of him, without really understanding what was going on around him, says Thomas Ravelli.
An elderly man had a heart attack at a children’s party nearby.
– When I got there, the man was lying on the balcony without any traces of life. An amazing girl named Anna Lindiwall started CPR and was pushing her chest like crazy. Together we shocked the man with a defibrillator interspersed with a heart massage. A neighbor was a doctor and drove before the ambulance arrived. We started fibrillating the heart, and the guy started breathing and gurgling, says Thomas Ravelli.
“A coincidence is not a coincidence”
The next day, Thomas Ravelli came home to check how things were going and later got a photo from the hospital where the man was sitting drinking coffee in the hospital bed.
A coincidence is not an accident, it is a very strange feeling. I took an unusual route, walked faster than usual, was just at an intersection when the guy passed the bike and I had a pacemaker at home, says Thomas Ravelli.
Hjärtuppropet is working to save more lives in connection with cardiac arrest.
The fact that defibrillators are not available outside businesses and housing associations and can be locked makes me very upset. There should be more intensive CPR courses for staff and school students. Because it is possible to save many lives. Thomas Ravelli says the most important thing when something like this happens is that you don’t give up, I end up in a situation where I don’t see or hear anything other than the most important thing.
I had surgery myself for a heart defect
It was discovered that Thomas Raffelli himself had a leaky two heart valves in connection with a routine examination prior to his participation in TV4’s Let’s dance 2019.
Almost a year ago he underwent surgery at Sahlgrenska in Gothenburg.
It took me a while to recover and I won’t be in the same league as before. I can still move around every day and play golf and other things. I’m also half blind after the padel ball in my eyes, I’ve been through a lot in my life, says Thomas Ravelli.
During his active career, there were, among others, 143 national matches, a WC bronze in the US in 1994 and six SM golds with IFK Göteborg.
