Bride-to-be suffered 108 cardiac arrests and ‘died’ for several minutes

A Norwich bride-to-be revealed she has suffered 108 cardiac arrests and “died” for several minutes.

Tracey Roberts, 39, has a rare condition called Brugada syndrome, which can cause the heart to beat dangerously fast, and she first collapsed in her kitchen at home 10 years ago. She was taken to hospital and tested for epilepsy but suffered a cardiac arrest while there and said she ‘died’ for several minutes.

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She was put on a life support machine for four days but survived and after many tests and time in and out of hospital over the past decade, was diagnosed with the condition.

Ms Roberts, who comes from Norwich but who now lives in Colwyn Bay, Wales with partner Paul Jones, was fitted with an ICD, an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, a bit like a pacemaker, which sends an electric shock to the heart when it’s going into a cardiac arrest. Ms Roberts said it has done this 108 times.

Ms Roberts, who has two teenage children, 18 and 16, also sadly recently had a miscarriage.

But despite all these hurdles, Ms Roberts is determined to live life to the full and she and her partner are planning on getting married after being engaged for around 15 years.

And bringing an extra bit of joy is the fact she just won her wedding dress from Say Yes bridal outlet in Norwich’s Castle Quarter in its regular ‘Freebie Friday’ competition. This sees designer gowns given away completely free for people who enter on social media and say why they deserve to win.

Also, Ms Roberts’ partner has just inherited some money enabling him to buy a cafe which they are going to run in Wales – and which will be the reception venue for their big day.

She said: “We’ve had a very bad run of luck. Paul has stuck by me through all this. There have been times when I didn’t want to be here, I’ve ‘died’ so often that I just didn’t want to carry on. Then I had a miscarriage just a couple of months ago, it just wasn’t meant to be.

“But Paul has said: ‘Come, on,’ and he’s taken me off somewhere to take my mind off things. He bought me a horse which my daughter rides and he’s so excited to take over the cafe business. I can’t really help him because my condition means I get light headed a lot and although I am now allowed to drive, I don’t because it worries me.

“We wanted to get married but couldn’t afford to and now I have the dress and the venue.”

Ashleigh Johansen, owner of Say Yes bridal outlet, said: “We are so happy for Tracey, she is very deserving of winning our beautiful gown. We are super excited for her to wear it on her big day and cannot wait to see the photos. We love doing this competition, it makes us so happy to be able to give back to the community.”

Entries close for the next dress giveway on September 25.