TV: Doctor details ordeal of sudden cardiac arrest in Cork

When musician Frankie Lane collapsed from a sudden cardiac arrest during a holiday in Cork, his wife Anita faced every family’s worst nightmare.

Against staggering odds, paramedic Pat McCarthy resuscitated Frankie using CPR and a defibrillator.

His survival set in motion a journey that brought together the people who made it possible, the family living through its aftermath, and the researchers working to understand what happens next.

The story of survival is told in the gripping documentary Counter Attack on RTÉ1 on Monday at 8.30pm.

It interweaves Frankie and Anita’s emotional journey with the work of CÚRAM, Ireland’s leading medical research centre.

Through the expertise of cardiovascular surgeon Dr Niamh Hynes, the film explores cutting-edge innovations, from 3D-printed heart tissue to AI-designed stents, and the potential to transform how we understand and treat cardiovascular disease.

At its heart, this is a film about the people behind survival: the paramedic whose split-second intervention made the difference, the family navigating the aftermath of an extraordinary event, and the researchers working to ensure that more people have a chance of surviving.

A poignant blend of personal storytelling and scientific discovery, Counter Attack explores what happens when medicine, human intervention and innovation come together – and asks whether the miracles of today can become the medicine of tomorrow.

It relates an extraordinary story of the science, human intervention and medical innovation behind surviving cardiac arrest - and the race to turn rare survival into something more common.

When the heart stops, and there is a thin line between life and death, everything depends on what happens next.