"She collapsed on the ground, stopped breathing and turned blue."
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By any definition, Samantha Webster is lucky to be alive after suffering a cardiac arrest last month.
The Orange woman was driving back from Lithgow on March 13 when she decided to pop into her parent's house to see her sister Michelle who was in the city visiting.
That same day, family friend Simon Atkinson also decided to drop in. It's a good thing he did as not five minutes after he arrived, Ms Webster collapsed.
They called triple zero and Mr Atkinson - a former Rural Fire Service captain - started CPR.
"It was pretty daunting at the start but it's like anything, when something like this happens a job has to be done," he said.
"What I've heard since the event is that she was essentially dead on the ground.
"It's a really good feeling to know that you've done something that's helped someone survive an incident like that."
Ms Webster was in an induced coma at Orange hospital for two days before she was flown to Sydney.
Waking up at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital is the first thing she remembers about the incident.
"I was shocked and I was upset," she said.
"It took me a while to understand what was going on. Hearing that I had to go in for an operation was pretty scary as well."
Eventually she was diagnosed with Long Q T syndrome which results in an increased risk of an irregular heartbeat which can result in fainting, drowning, seizures, or even sudden death.
Just a month after suffering the life-threatening cardiac arrest, Ms Webster is back at work, albeit part-time for the moment.
She knows just how lucky she is.
"I think everything lined up in my favour that day," she said.
"I went to my parent's place instead of going directly home. If I had, which apparently I was intending to do, my son would have found me and it would have been too late.
"That Simon was there to do what he did and my family did what they did, I'm amazingly lucky to be here."
She isn't out of the woods just yet. During surgery, doctors put a defibrillator (ICD) in her to assist her heart if it ever happened again.
But even with that, statistics show that just 60 per cent of people survive the next 12 months.
Now she is encouraging more people to take part in a first aid course in case their friends or family ever need it.
"Getting people to do first aid is so important because it's what saved me, that's why I'm here."
Mr Atkinson is even taking part in a first aid course on Tuesday, organised by the trout fishing club.
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