Wildcats star Rooney reveals heart scare
Jamie Rooney glad to be alive
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Thursday, 12, Feb 2009 09:21
Wakefield Wildcats star Jamie Rooney admitted he felt lucky to be alive after his heart stopped beating during a knee operation.
The 29-year-old went under the knife to correct minor cartilage damage in his knee and was given an anaesthetic for the operation. Rooney revealed his heart stopped beating five minutes into the operation before doctors resuscitated him.
"I feel incredibly lucky to be here," he told the Yorkshire Evening Post. "It was just supposed to be an operation to clear out my knee but five minutes after going under my heart stopped.
"I was told that they couldn't get it going again for 30 seconds and they had a real job resuscitating me before bringing me round from the anaesthetic.
"When I came through I just assumed I'd had the op and everything would be all right. I couldn't believe it when they explained what had happened. It was all a bit of a shock."
The stand-off missed Wakefield's victory over Wigan in the opening fixture of the Super League season and is expected to be out of action for up to seven weeks due to the heart scare.
But Rooney was just glad to be okay and was admitted it would have been "devastating" for Wakefield if they had lost another player after the sudden death of team-mate Adam Watene last year.