A SUPERFIT dad died while taking part in an Ironman challenge after he was pulled from the water on one of the hottest days of the year.
Sam Buchan, 31, was about 0.6 miles (1km) into the swimming leg of the Ironman 70.3 race on July 13 last year in Swansea Marina when he was rescued after getting into difficulty, an inquest has heard.
He was pulled on to a support boat and given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Mr Buchan was transferred to Morriston Hospital in Swansea but died on July 16 after his life support was switched off.
A post-mortem examination found the father-of-one, from Aberdeen, had died from “anoxic ischemic encephalopathy, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and exertional heat stroke during a sporting event”.
Mr Buchan, who worked as an engineer in the North Sea oil and gas industry, had made the trip to west Wales with his family for the event.
The competition features a 1.2-mile (1.9km) swim at the Prince of Wales Dock before a 56-mile (90km) bike course through Mumbles and along the Gower clifftops which loops back into Swansea for a 13.1-mile (21.1km) run.
His wife Samantha told the inquest her husband had no medical history apart from mild asthma and hay fever, and he had been training for the event for 12 months.
Mrs Buchan said: “Sam was a very active, friendly person who spent spare time trying out new hobbies, such as hiking, surfing, roasting his own coffee, cooking, weightlifting, running and cycling.
“He took part in many events such as 10K runs, half-marathons and many others throughout his life.
“He had built up to the Ironman, which was researched, memorised and trained for thoroughly for over one year.”
Mrs Buchan said she was not at the event in person but was following his progress via his Ironman tracker.
She said: “I received a phone call at 8.55am from Ironman to notify me Sam had suffered a cardiac arrest in the water and was now on his way to Morriston Hospital.”
The following day Mrs Buchan was told by doctors that her husband was showing significant signs of lasting brain damage. He died in the early hours of July 16.
She added: “I have serious concerns around the length of time taken for Sam to receive first aid.
“From the various stories I was told over that day, it took anything from between 10 to 30 minutes to get Sam from the water and to start chest compressions.
“It appears that the first aid was second to none when Sam made it to the medical tent. But the time it took to get him there would have caused his death.
“I feel Ironman failed him in providing appropriate first aid.
“It appeared to be very little to no access to appropriate first aid equipment and potentially a lack of training to deal with this type of medical emergency.
“Taking more than eight minutes to retrieve a body from the water and not having appropriate equipment to start active chest compressions, or even attempting a precordial thump, is not allowing any participant to ever survive if put in the same scenario.
“Sam should have woken up from this medically. But sadly, due to the time his brain was starved of oxygen, he has now lost his entire life.
“His two-year-old daughter will not get to grow up with him, and the entire family is broken.
“Nothing can be changed in our situation, but I hope for the future the better protocols and safety equipment can be put in place, so no other family has to go through this again.”
The inquest in Swansea heard evidence from various people involved in rescuing Mr Buchan that it took around three-and-a-half minutes from him first being seen in difficulty in the water to reaching the medical station.
Safety team paddleboarder Wayne Evans was the first person to reach Mr Buchan after seeing him stop swimming.
“I asked him again, are you all right? This time, there was no thumbs up or response. I quickly paddled over to him,” Mr Evans said.
“There was no response, and I noticed he was starting to sink.”
Mr Evans said there was no signs of breathing, so he positioned him on his paddle board to give him breaths and alerted the nearby rescue boat.
Tom Denham, who was onboard and trained in emergency care, started CPR, but due to a problem with the boat Mr Buchan was transferred to a second boat which took him to the shore.
Dr Ed Langford, who was leading the medical team at the Ironman event, said Mr Buchan had developed hyperthermia and had a core body temperature of 40.4C.
“Because it might be a potential cause, we started cooling right from the outset of him arriving with us,” he said.
“Clearly the first part of that is to cut the wetsuit off, and that obviously would retain heat.
“We get cold water, and so that cold water is being applied to Sam simultaneously before we know what his temperature is.
“It’s a potential abnormality. Whilst he felt cool, probably because he had been in the water, we don’t know what the core temperature is.
“One of the contributing factors certainly is the fact that his temperature is above 40 degrees.
“He’s obviously got neurological compromise given that he’s in cardiac arrest. We would describe that as severe exertional heat illness.”
The inquest continues.
