As the Christian Eriksen drama unfolded at Euro 2020, many of us were thinking back nine years.
When young Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba collapsed on the pitch during a match against Tottenham Hotspur in 2012, it seemed like a one in a million chance.
Swift CPR from the medical team at White Hart Lane followed, but it took 76 minutes to restore a regular heartbeat to the supremely fit professional footballer, including 15 shocks from a defibrillator on the pitch, and 11 more at the London Chest Hospital.
Muamba, 24, recovered but retired early from the professional football.
Suddenly, we’re here again as fans watching Denmark play Finland were shocked to see former Spurs midfield star Christian Eriksen collapse early in the game, and receive swift CPR from medics, resulting in him returning to consciousness before being taken to hospital, where it was confirmed he had suffered a cardiac arrest. The 29-year-old is now recovering.
Other footballers, such as Marc-Vivien Foé who had a fatal heart attack while playing for Cameroon, were not so fortunate.
London Ambulance paramedic Pete Fisher, who was part of the emergency team at Spurs, told the Evening Standard: “They did a great job. We don’t expect it with any sort of elite athlete. To see it with Christian and his links to Tottenham it was a bit of a shock.
“It’s a small percentage of people who do pull through but the big thing that Christian had was the chain of survival – the early recognition, early CPR, early defib, advanced medical treatment and transfer to hospital. All of that literally fell in place for him.
“From the time the [emergency] team was on the pitch to the point CPR was delivered, everything was just spot on.”
Interestingly, the response on Twitter and other social media channels to the dramatic incident at Euro 2020 was exactly the same as it had been nine years ago for Fabrice Muamba – but instead of #prayforMuamba it was #prayforEriksen. And those tweeting and re-tweeting the hashtag would certainly have included millions of agnostics and atheists, as well as followers of Jesus, and those of other faiths.
Why is it that our cry for help in this kind of traumatic situation is to look outside ourselves to a loving, healing power that can intervene and change things? Our default when we are overwhelmed and in desperate need is to cry out for God – for the all-powerful, all-seeing Creator who can step in and save us.
The good news is that God wants us to reach out to him – not just in life or death situations, but whenever we need help, wisdom, guidance, strength and a fresh start.
More than this, he wants a relationship with us – we are made in his image and we’re made to live in harmony and friendship with him. In choosing to live without him and to go our own way, our own wrongdoing has created a gap that only the death and resurrection of Jesus can bridge. Jesus is already our Saviour: we just haven’t recognised it yet.
God promises forgiveness for the past, his presence now and a future with him when he trust him with our lives. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but if we choose to follow Jesus, we know our lives are safe in his hands for eternity.