I’m sure PBers will join me in sending our best wishes to JohnO who suffered a cardiac arrest earlier on this month, Esher and Walton Conservatives said last week.

Local Conservatives are thankful for all the goodwill messages we received for our colleague County Cllr John O’Reilly after he suffered a cardiac arrest last week. We are pleased to report that John is now making a good recovery in hospital.

On Sunday 9 May, only three days after John was re-elected as Surrey County Councillor for Hersham with 59% of the vote, he was jogging early in the morning in Coronation Rec when he collapsed. A dog walker, known to John, gave CPR until the paramedics arrived and were able to restart his heart.

John, who led Elmbridge Council for six years, was taken to St Peter’s Hospital and placed on a ventilator in intensive care. Family, friends and colleagues faced an anxious wait but on Wednesday evening John’s condition had improved sufficiently that he was able to come off the ventilator. He has his phone recharged and has been able to respond to messages on Facebook.

John’s family passed on the following message to well-wishers:

“We are completely overwhelmed by all the love and support received over these last few days for John and the rest of our family. The signs are as positive as they can be, and we hope that John will be back working with you all soon, continuing to play his part in Surrey County Council, something he feels so passionate about.”

John has been on PB since its founding in 2004 and has attended several meets. I consider John a great friend, he and I have regularly met up for our PB Tory lunches and dinners, where we’ve enjoyed a nice meal and talked politics and many other things, somehow we always concluded our meetups at Searcys Champagne Bar in St Pancras train station. I look forward to seeing him again soon.

I’ve sent him an email & text and will update you all when he replies.

TSE

Update – John has posted on this thread, he said

Hi All, A thread entirely devoted to ME ME ME! What could be more restorative than that.

Many thanks to Mike and all pb for your kind wishes.I’m back in Hersham Towers since yesterday….and as this is ‘politics’, everyone at NHS St Peters and I mean everyone was simple fantastic in the care, kindness and effectiveness. And I owe so very much to the dog-walker (who I know) for the CRP. I’ve also been consoling myself by reading all the pb threads.

It all happened so suddenly, didn’t feel a thing and can’t even remember the few days before the incident – it’s all a complete blank.

Anyway the problem was essential an arrhythmia which should be completely solved by my now having an ICD. Feeling generally fine but knackered. But we’ll start councilling again gradually.

Cheers to y’all. John