Ashburton Guardian, Friday, January 10, 2020

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Friday, Jan 10, 2020

Since Sept 27, 1879

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‘I WANT TO DRIVE AGAIN’ Ricky May talks about the day he died on live TV

By Michael Guerin Methven harness racing legend, Ricky May can now laugh at the fact he died on live television last week. He can’t laugh too hard though, because of the broken ribs he got from the guardian angel horsewoman who probably saved his live. And even after one of the most shocking incidents in harness

racing history, the champion harness racing driver is adamant he will return to the sulky. May stunned the racing world last Thursday when he collapsed mid-race and fell to the track when driving A G’s White Socks in the $30,000 Central Otago Cup at Omakau. His heart had stopped and thousands watching live and on television feared the worst. Initially, they were right.

Ricky May was dead. “The doctor in Dunedin Hospital told me later that I was gone,” May said from his Christchurch Hospital bed yesterday. “I don’t know how long for. They reckon it could have been 10 minutes. I don’t remember anything. “I remember driving a winner earlier (two hours before the incident) and then the next thing I remember was waking up in hos-

pital with all my family there and that was two days later.” From what the doctors at the hospital and those first to him on track have told him, May knows he had no heart beat when fellow driver Ellie Barron rushed to his side. Barron, a trained physiotherapist, performed CPR on him, working so hard to keep his heart pumping she broke his ribs. She may also have saved his life.

“I spoke to Ellie yesterday and when she got to me I had no heart beat. “She just took over ‘til the medics got there and used the paddles (defibrillators) on me. “To be honest, I think Ellie was my saviour.”

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