One of Canterbury's finest sporting sons is alive and kicking after multiple heart attacks suffered just five weeks ago.
Former Olympic cyclist Brian Fowler was driving in Christchurch when he suffered a massive heart attack.
The 58-year-old managed to pull up outside a childcare facility across from West Rolleston Primary School, where two school mums picking up their kids found him.
"[There was] this big black vehicle across the pre-school's driveway...[I was] thinking why would somebody park there?" one of the mums Bianca Lock said.
"As you got closer I noticed a male slumped in his vehicle."
With paramedics on the phone, the mum's started CPR.
"It was a very frightening moment to think you'd ever have to do that," Lock said.
At the same time a teached grabbed a defibrillator from the school office.
"In those sort of situations you don't have time to think, you do what you have to do," West Rolleston teacher Leona Whittington said.
Fowler's heart eventually started again, but he had several more attacks in hospital leading to doctors placing him in an induced coma.
"I remember absolutely nothing from the day," Fowler said.
"I woke up in the emergency department after being in a coma for a week.
"Someone was definitely looking after me that day."
Aside from immediate medical attention, the other saving grace was that the Commonwealth Games gold medalist still rides around 300km a week.
"Once they had him stabilised, I kinda knew he'd be alright, I knew how fit he was," son Luke said.
Fowler and his four sons have decided to donate his 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games gold medal to West Rolleston School, while Fowler himself plans to get back on the bike as soon as he can.
SHARE ME