{"id":447554,"date":"2025-12-15T00:35:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T00:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/447554\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T00:35:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T00:35:23","slug":"kahus-been-woodchopping-his-whole-life-but-a-heart-attack-mid-competition-almost-killed-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/447554\/","title":{"rendered":"Kahu’s been woodchopping his whole life, but a heart attack mid-competition almost killed him"},"content":{"rendered":"

Woodchopping has been a lifelong passion for Naracoorte man, Kahu Woolley, but he was lucky to walk away from his most recent competition.<\/p>\n

Kahu took to the axe just four weeks ago over the border in Noorat, Victoria, ready to compete like he had for the decades before.<\/p>\n

“I had an unexpected cardiac arrest that basically killed me on the spot,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

The heart attack left Kahu, 44, clinically dead multiple times over the course of 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

“I was halfway through a race, cutting a log with an axe,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I felt like I was basically running out of steam and my vision was going a bit blurry.<\/p>\n

“Normally, I can finish those logs off in 20\u201330 seconds, but this time I was really struggling with it.”<\/p>\n

After that block, with a large crowd watching, Kahu walked back to his wife Kirsty.<\/p>\n

“I walked back over to my axe box, put the axe in the box, sat down on the chair and I said to my wife, ‘There’s just something wrong’,” he said.<\/p>\n

“My chest then did start to tighten up. I just couldn’t breathe and I basically died in her arms.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Kahu’s heart attack came mid-competition. (ABC South East SA: Josh Brine)<\/p>\n

Quick actions save a life<\/p>\n

Kahu’s wife called over friends of his, who knew CPR, and saw the signs of what was happening.<\/p>\n

“They put me on the ground, cut my shirt off and started doing CPR instantly, because I had no pulse,” he said.<\/p>\n

One of those there to help was Scott Anderson, president of the Western Victorian Axemen\u2019s Association.<\/p>\n

The association has had a defibrillator since it received a grant back in 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cA couple of our members have done our first aid training, so we grabbed the defibrillator and proceeded to go through the steps,” Mr Anderson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been some cases of competitors in the past having cardiac arrests and [defibrillators] weren\u2019t available.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something we didn\u2019t expect to have to use, but we\u2019re very glad we had it there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kahu is back at work in his Naracoorte repair shop. (ABC South East SA: Josh Brine)<\/p>\n

The defibrillator brought Kahu’s pulse back for 20 seconds, before his heart stopped beating again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This happened about four times over the course of 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

“I don’t remember anything from when I spoke to my wife until I came to in the helicopter where the paramedic was standing over me letting me know we were about to take off to Geelong Hospital,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If they hadn’t got the defibrillator I think I would’ve been too late to make it to the ambulance or the helicopter.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In hospital, doctors put a stent in through Kahu’s right arm to open up a collapsed artery.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kahu has had to look back into his own genetic history. (ABC South East SA: Josh Brine)<\/p>\n

A dive into family history<\/p>\n

For Kahu, who was adopted into his family at six months old, the incident led to a dive back into his genetics.<\/p>\n

“My mother dug a little bit deeper and found out [my genetic father] had history of heart issues when he was 20,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Obviously there was an underlying hereditary issue there that has caused it.”<\/p>\n

You can save a life<\/a><\/p>\n

The survival rate from cardiac arrest is horrifically low, but saving someone’s life could one day be down to you.<\/p>\n

Heart Foundation South Australia general manager Claire Gardner said she encouraged anyone with symptoms like Kahu\u2019s to call Triple Zero (000) straight away.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat people can do is look at ways to prevent heart disease or heart attacks,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

“It doesn’t discriminate and it can happen to anyone at any time.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ms Gardner said lifestyle changes, including eating a healthy diet, being active, not vaping or smoking and minimising alcohol intake can all help reduce the risk.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Kahu hopes to get back to woodchopping competitions in the new year. (ABC Ballarat: Dominic Cansdale)<\/p>\n

While, fortunately, Kahu has no long-term heart damage, he is getting a defibrillator for his house.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got five children who range from 23 to 15 years old,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It still hasn’t really settled in [for them] that Dad possibly couldn’t be around at the moment.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had a second chance at life, so I’ve just got to carry on and keep going forward.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Woodchopping has been a lifelong passion for Naracoorte man, Kahu Woolley, but he was lucky to walk away…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":447555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,27438,205889,34131,205888,205886,205891,50,205890,205887],"class_list":{"0":"post-447554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-cpr","10":"tag-defibrillator","11":"tag-heart-attack","12":"tag-heart-foundation","13":"tag-kahu-woolley","14":"tag-naracoorte","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-noorat","17":"tag-woodchopping"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115720784426892096","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}