Wales rugby player was clinically dead for 17 minutes

A Welsh rugby player who was clinically dead for 17 minutes has miraculously returned to the game and still harbours ambitions of playing professionally again.

Morgan MacRae, who played for the Scarlets and Wales 7s, suffered a cardiac arrest in his sleep in August 2023, with his girlfriend Kitty, who is trained in CPR, saving his life.

She was able to use her CPR training from university to keep Morgan alive for six minutes until paramedics arrived. Paramedics used a defibrillator on Morgan four times before he was resuscitated and was rushed to St. George’s Hospital.

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At the time, MacRae had been playing for English National 2 side Henley. After two days in an induced coma and three weeks in hospital, Morgan was fitted with an internal defibrillator called an S-ICD.

“I was staying at my brother’s house with my girlfriend at the time – I was incredibly fortunate as the house was 10 mins from St George’s Hospital in Tooting and the paramedics arrived within seven mins,” Morgan told WalesOnline. “I don’t remember much – I remember the day before, and the evening, but my first memory was from around a week and a half later.

“It was all down to my girlfriend – she’s the one who performed CPR and saved my life. It’s her and my family that remember the really traumatic times. Kitty called 999 and performed CPR until the paramedics arrived, where I was defibrillated four times to be resuscitated.

“All the sports captains at her university had done a first aid course in case anything happened on the pitches. She never thought she’d have to use it – but thank God her uni taught them it. If she hadn’t, it would have been a completely different outcome.”

Having initially been told he could never play rugby again, he was given hope by the same cardiologists - Professor Sharma and Professor Papadakis - who were involved in Danish footballer Christian Eriksen's return to football after being fitted with an internal defibrillator.

Having returned to training last September, Morgan made his return in March when Henley played Canterbury. Remarkably, he's understood to be the first rugby player to play at this level with an S-ICD.

“It was a pretty incredible moment,” he told the Henley Standard. “I had all my family and friends cheering and having all the boys congratulating me when I came on made it an amazing occasion for me and rugby as a sport.

“It’s pretty surreal to be playing again.”

And now he's back playing, he still retains an ambition to make it as a professional.

"No one has done it before in rugby but I am young and still have a burning dream and determination to give rugby my all," he told the Rugby Paper recently. "If I didn't give it another chance, I would always regret it."

MacRae and Kitty continue to educate and campaign for more awareness and training around CPR, while the pair allowed cameras to film them for a documentary on their experience.

"I've been lucky enough to represent my country and play for Wales," he said in the trailer to the documentary. "I've got so close at fulfilling my dream.

"I don't think I've realised the magnitude of it. To our knowledge and the knowledge of medical experts around the world, no one's ever done it."

A dynamic hooker in his time with the Scarlets, MacRae was picked to play for Wales 7s in January 2022 while he was still a student at Swansea University.

Concussion ruled him out of the first tournament in Seville, before he suffered an Achilles injury two minutes into his debut the following week in Malaga.