'I felt more tired than usual - doctors gave me a 1% chance of survival'

A woman who was "rescued" by her sister following a cardiac arrest that left her paralysed and "unlikely to survive" has expressed her determination to demonstrate there is "life after a spinal injury". Nikki Owen, 65, experienced a cardiac arrest in February 2025 after feeling "more tired than usual".

Her sister Sally, 63, administered CPR until paramedics arrived and Nikki was rushed to hospital, where her family was advised to brace for the worst. After awakening paralysed from the chest down, Nikki has made an astonishing recovery and now aims to participate in the Inter Spinal Unit Games in September, where she will compete alongside patients from across the UK who are recovering from spinal injuries. She will be participating in swimming, shooting, badminton and table tennis events.

"There is life after a spinal injury, and there is hope," Nikki said. "If we open our minds to what we can do, rather than focus on what we can't, then you suddenly start to realise that all sorts of things are possible. I just want to make every second of my life count now, however it unfolds."

READ MORE: Fiona Phillips' daily torment in her husband's words as Alzheimer's takes hold

READ MORE: ITV's Dr Amir shares how 'weight stigma damages lives' in urgent warning to GPs

Nikki, a trauma counsellor from Sevenoaks, Kent, said she "always kept very fit" and attended the gym every morning. She only has "a hazy recollection" of the weeks leading up to her cardiac arrest in February, but added: "Everybody who knows me said there were no warning signs, except I had complained of feeling more tired than usual."

In a stroke of luck, her sister Sally decided to bring forward a planned visit by a few days. "I was tired that night, which was unusual for me," Nikki remembered.

"She's normally a late riser, but she woke up early and messaged me. I went into her room and said: 'I don't feel very well, would you call an ambulance?' Then I passed out and went into cardiac arrest."

Sally promptly dialled emergency services and began performing CPR on her sister. By pure chance, an ambulance was in the vicinity and arrived within six minutes, taking over from Sally.

Nikki said: "All she could hear was 'no heartbeat, nothing'. Finally, they managed to get a heartbeat of nine beats a minute. I feel quite upset that my heart was really struggling to stay alive."

Nikki was rushed to hospital with a tear in her aorta, meaning CPR was pushing blood into her lungs. "My family was told that I had a 1% chance of survival," she revealed. Nikki's daughter Rosie, 31, had just touched down in Singapore when her husband rang her with the news.

Nikki said: "She had to do a 30-hour journey back, praying that I wasn't going to die before she got there. She phoned my brother and asked if he could hold the phone near my ear, even though I wasn't conscious, and she just said how much she loved me and everything."

Doctors warned her family she was "likely to be brain-damaged". She also had collapsed lungs and broken ribs from the CPR, as well as pneumonia and sepsis. Upon waking up, she was informed that the incident had left her permanently paralysed from the chest down.

"My legs felt like I was wearing tight socks made of fire, and the injury site felt like a really tight elastic band," she remembered. "I've had to get used to those two feelings."

She also experiences a "phantom" sensation when she's lying in bed that her legs are bent and her feet are "squashed into really tight shoes". "Sometimes it feels so real that I have to look at my feet to see where they are," she added.

In May, Nikki was moved to Stoke Mandeville Hospital's spinal unit, where she is learning to adapt to her new life. This includes how to use a wheelchair and get into bed.

"It took a lot of energy to just sit in a wheelchair because I have no core (strength) – I'm like a floppy doll," she explained. After a career of helping others, Nikki said learning to accept help has been humbling but "lovely in its own way".

She added that her background in trauma counselling was beneficial. "You have to accept what's happened, and that you're not being punished – you're not a bad person," she said. She had to "let go" of things such as swimming in the sea, going on long walks with friends and "dancing to lovely music".

She added: "The thing that was hardest to come to terms with is the thought that I can't help my daughter like I was hoping to at the point when she has children. That took a little bit longer, but I can still be there and present."

Now, Nikki concentrates on the "amazing things" she can still accomplish, including joining the Stoke Mandeville squad at the Inter Spinal Unit Games in September. "They just said it's because I'm good for team morale," she added.

She will be taking part alongside patients from other spinal units across the UK in shooting, swimming, table tennis and badminton competitions. She said: "I'm really useless at everything – but I do give it a good go."

The competition is attended by talent scouts for the Paralympics. She explained: "I'm not saying they'd be looking at me, but isn't it great that people who have been injured in life-changing ways have suddenly got this whole new life?"

Nikki is currently adjusting to her new requirements, including purchasing shoes that accommodate her swollen feet and replacing her wardrobe of flowing garments for clothing that won't become tangled in her wheelchair. Because she hopes to one day regain her independence, she will also require accommodation with ramps, lower kitchen worktops, and light switches she can reach.

Whilst the council helps with some expenses, many are not covered – and so Nikki's daughter Rosie established a fundraiser which has raised more than £16,000. "When she showed me what she'd done, it was just so overwhelming," Nikki expressed.

"People have donated that I knew over 30 years ago, and other donations are from total strangers."

She acknowledges there's still "a long road" to recovery, and at times, Nikki feels like she's "going backwards". She added: "I've always been very resilient, but this is the hardest thing I've ever had to go through.

"But to have a 1% chance of survival, and for my sister to have been there unexpectedly, for the ambulance to have been just around the corner, I feel that I'm supposed to be alive."