Vikki Mackay – giving the ultimate gift of life

The mantra frequently heard at such gatherings, run under the banner of SCRUMCAPS, is: “You will never know when these skills can come in handy… and it won’t always be on a rugby pitch.”

But quite whether you would remain composed to “trust the process” if you were confronted with the scenario that arose for Vikki Mackay from Caithness RFC, is debatable.

Vikki, 49, is a sports therapist, coastguard volunteer, farmer, wife to Alan and mum to three, 21-year-old twins Rhianna and Faye and 25-year-old son Lewis.

Lewis has been a mascot for a Scotland game at Scottish Gas Murrayfield, shorn an estimated 100,000 sheep whether on the family farm east of Thurso or down in New Zealand and was named best shearer in the Highlands at this year’s Black Isle show.

Faye is studying law at university in Aberdeen.

Rhianna has played in a youth rugby final at Hive Stadium on the back pitches at Murrayfield, where she managed to fracture her collar bone.

But that only served to fuel her interest in radiography, where, after graduating earlier this summer from university in Cardiff, she now has a job offer at a hospital in Aberdeen. All this while fulfilling initially the fixture secretary role at Caithness, where now she is in charge of the club’s social media platforms.

In many ways, the Mackays are typical of the families whose passion for the game keeps the rugby flame burning brightly.

Vikki has been the pitch-side first aider at Caithness, currently in Caledonia Regional League Division 1, for some 14 years.

In 2019 she was on duty for a match against Gordonians, where a Caithness player sustained a serious leg/ankle break and had to be helicoptered to hospital at Raigmore in Inverness.

“The Gordonians medics, a lovely couple, Peter and Kathleen, were very complimentary about the care I gave and told me more about the courses that Scottish Rugby runs to augment pitch-side welfare,” Vikki explained.

“I had a bit of ‘impostor syndrome’ to begin with, as I looked at the highly qualified doctors and specialised physios who were on the courses,” Vikki recalled.

“But, over the years, and with the support of Doctors James Robson, Dave Pugh and Karen Barclay especially, I came to realise that you don’t need to be a medical professional to demonstrate skills.

“And they are basic skills that can keep someone alive.”

Wind the clock forward to July 2 and Vikki and daughter Rhianna were in the sitting room of their home in the village of Forss, west of Thurso.

“Rhianna was sat on the settee on her phone when out of the blue she went into a seizure.

“I ran over to her.  There was no response coming from her and with the training I had done, I kind of knew what the next stage would be; it was just her colour,” Vikki explained.

Rhianna was in the midst of a cardiac arrest and Vikki knew she had to act quickly.

Between doing chest compressions and running to her car to grab a defibrillator (heart-start machine), Vikki managed to shock the heart back into rhythm.

“People say ‘you must have been scared’ but I was so focused on following the basics, your ABC, Airway, Breathing and Circulation.

“I knew my process. I felt I did what I needed to do to keep my daughter alive, but in the moment, it was important to keep focused and as calm as possible,” she said.

Husband Alan had been alerted by phone and Rhianna was taken to Caithness General Hospital in nearby Wick where she was sedated after confirmation from the duty medics that she was suitably stable for that procedure.

Subsequently Vikki was told that without her intervention her daughter would have passed away.

“I got hundreds of messages saying, ‘you’re incredible’ and such like, but what alarmed me the most was folk saying they would not have known what to do if they had been in the same situation.

“I feel really lucky that Rhianna was with me and that I knew what to do, thanks to the first-aid training that I’d had and to the SCRUMCAPS courses I had attended through Scottish Rugby.

“I want to get the message across that that training is a genuine life-saver and my daughter is here today to prove it.

“If I had not known what to do, then would it have been panic, stand back and watch my daughter die?” Vikki added.

Vikki is supporting Savealife Scotland’s drive to encourage more people to learn emergency life-saving (CPR).

This month (October) is World Restart a Heart Day, so she emphasises that signing up to learn CPR could provide “the ultimate gift.”

She is also involved with a charity, Lucky2Bhere, who  place defibrillators and deliver emergency life support training to communities throughout Scotland.

Last month (September) she was on hand to support Caithness captain Cole Wilson, who completed a 70 mile cycle in the teeth of a gale to Tongue to raise funds for the charity.

Alastair Nicol, Scottish Rugby’s Interim Chief Medical Officer, said: “Scottish Rugby trains hundreds of healthcare practitioners each year, from first-aiders supporting clubs across Scotland to match day medical teams covering international matches at Scottish Gas Murrayfield, and the principles are the same; do the simple things well, trust the process and practice your skills regularly.

“Vikki’s story is the extreme end of this spectrum, as no one expects to be using their skills on a family member, but Rhianna is with us today because Vikki applied her training in the toughest of tests. The more people we train, the more lives we can potentially save, as we never know what is round the corner.”

Let’s leave the last word to Rhianna.

“I regard my mum as a hero. When you think about it, there are other places I could have been that night. If it had happened an hour later, or if I had been out walking the dog, who actually knows what could have happened?

“I’m extremely unlucky that it happened, but I was extremely lucky to be in the room with mum. I would definitely say, she’s a hero.”

Learn more about Scottish Rugby’s First Responder Course and develop life saving skills HERE.