Teenager who had cardiac arrest while out seeing a movie with friends in the Sydney CBD thanks the paramedics who saved his life

A young man who went into cardiac arrest near public transport during Sydney’s CBD rush hour has been reunited with the paramedics who saved his life.

Zufi Abdul, 17, had gone to lunch and a movie with friends when he passed out and then thought he had been kidnapped when he woke up and was in the back of an ambulance.

The teenager personally thanked the three paramedics every night before going to sleep, but was given the opportunity to thank them personally on Sunday.

“Finally meeting these guys today and just saying thank you – even though knowing the word ‘thank you’ is so short for me and for them – it meant the world,” Mr Abdul told 10 News.

The then 16-year-old had been on a day out last year when he collapsed and suffered sudden cardiac arrest – a rare occurrence in teenagers.

Zufi Abdul (pictured) suffered sudden cardiac arrest in the middle of Sydney’s CBD in January

This week Mr Abdul was able to thank the paramedics who saved his life (photo, Mr Abdul and paramedic Jeremy Beck)

A male bystander performed life-saving CPR on Mr Abdul near a tram stop in the CBD as he waited for heroic paramedics to arrive.

‘There were probably thousands of people around him in the pouring rain, and we had to get him into the ambulance so we could do what we had to do, so the defibrillator could work,” said paramedic Jeremy Beck.

“Being as young as he is and with such a life ahead of him, it’s fantastic that he’s reaching out to us.”

Mr Abdul was clinically dead for about ten minutes before paramedics revived him with a defibrillator.

Now he wants to encourage more people to take CPR courses and first aid training as he works to find the stranger who resuscitated him.

“If you look, I’d like to have another cup of tea,” Mr. Abdul said.

The Heart Foundation described sudden cardiac arrest in people under 35 as ‘very rare’.

“The baseline risk in Australia for people under 35 years of age is 1.3 per 100,000 people per year, with 15 percent occurring during or immediately after exercise,” the report said.

‘Across all ages, there are 20,000 out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrests in Australia every year and unfortunately only 10 per cent of people survive.

‘Cardiac arrest is when the heart stops pumping blood around the body, and this can be due to a heart attack or another cause.’