Man commemorates the day staff at Meadowhall shopping centre saved his life by engraving name on charity’s Heart of Steel this Christmas

Bob Reville survived a cardiac arrest in Meadowhall Shopping Centre on September 8, 2013.

He collapsed in the food hall and stopped breathing before CPR was performed on him and one of the centre’s defibrillators was used to restart his heart.

Due to the quick actions of the centre’s security team and a nearby nurse, 51-year-old Bob is engraving his name on the British Heart Foundation’s Heart of Steel this Christmas seven years on.

Located at Sheffield’s Meadowhall Shopping Centre and standing at 2.4 metres high, the Heart of Steel sculpture is crafted entirely from Yorkshire steel.

Bob said: “That morning I felt fine, I remember thinking I hadn’t eaten anything yet that day, so I headed for the food hall at Meadowhall.

“The next thing I know I’m waking up in hospital, very dazed and confused.

“I have absolutely no recollection of anything that happened or how I ended up in hospital.”

After being resuscitated and stabilised by an ambulance crew, Bob was rushed to hospital where he was placed in a medically induced coma.

He spent a total of 21 days recovering in hospital and had a procedure to fit a subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator (SICD), a device that monitors Bob’s heart rhythm and will treat dangerously abnormal rhythms to hopefully stop Bob having another cardiac arrest.

The Sheffield-resident added: “I’m so grateful for the swift actions of everyone involved that day.

“It’s because of them that I’m here over seven years later to tell the tale.

“Once I was discharged from hospital, I went back to Meadowhall to meet the security team who saved my life.

“I wanted to do something to celebrate seven years since my cardiac arrest.

“Every time I go back to Meadowhall, I go to the food hall and sit as close to the spot where it happened as I can.