Footballing medics save life of collapsed player

Ryan Zon, 19, collapsed just like former Bolton Wanderers midfielder Fabrice Muamba did in the middle of a game, in front of horrified team mates and spectators.

But the opposition players were a team of doctors and trainee medics – who, along with two other doctors who happened to be nearby, gave him CPR until an ambulance arrived.

Ryan will now have to have open heart surgery, after latest tests revealed one of his arteries is growing the wrong way and is stopping the blood circulating, which caused him to have the huge heart attack.

His mother Tracey, 47, said she owed “everything” to the footballing medics who battled to revive her son.

“Talk about being in the right place at the right time – Ryan will never be as lucky again,” she said.

“Ryan died for 10 minutes, but the medics he was playing against – as well as two doctors playing rugby on a nearby pitch – revived him and saved his life.

“This isn’t the end of the road because he will now have to have open heart surgery.

“Ryan has asked what would have happened if they’d not been there and I’ve told him we would have been burying him. It’s unbelievable to think how close we were to losing him.”

Ryan, from Aston near Sheffield, was playing against Sheffield Medics FC.