Caroline Ramsay said her partner Jason Horsfall was fit and healthy
‘I’m doing each day hour by hour, I feel like a zombie’
One month before they were due to get married Jason Horsfall, 41, told his fiancée Caroline Ramsay, 40, that he didn’t feel well and he had heartburn. Despite taking Gaviscon and paracetamol, Jason’s discomfort persisted, leading him to go to their local Morrisons petrol station for some aspirin. Tragically, he collapsed in the road on his way home on October 10 just under a month a go.
Despite the efforts of emergency services and members of the public performing CPR, Jason sadly passed away later that afternoon in an ambulance. Four days after Jason’s death, Caroline discovered she was pregnant with his child.
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Now seven weeks along, she says that while she is “reliving” his death “every day”, she finds comfort in the fact “part of him is growing inside of me”. Caroline has since had to cancel their wedding, which was set for November 5 at a Registration Office in Nottingham.
She has also started an online fundraising page to help cover the costs of Jason’s funeral and the everyday expenses of caring for their 20-month-old daughter, Paignton. She said: “I’m doing each day hour by hour, I feel like a zombie but, in a way, I actually feel comforted and lucky that I’ve got a baby because it’s like a last gift from Jason. It’s nice to know I’ve got a part of him growing inside of me, it’s very comforting.”
Caroline, from Retford, Nottinghamshire, recalled how she and Jason first crossed paths in an Asda supermarket, “of all places”, back in 2018. She said: “Jason said he had seen me in the area months and months before. One day, I noticed him in Asda, sort of walking behind me, doing his shopping and we said hello. He then messaged me out of the blue on social media and it started from there – in Asda of all places.”
The couple got engaged in December 2020 and were set to get married on November 5 at a registration office in Nottingham.
“He was amazing, he couldn’t do enough for me,” Caroline said. On the morning of October 10, Caroline remembered Jason complaining about some discomfort in his chest. He woke up like any other morning, totally fine, but he said he had a bit of heartburn – he’s suffered with it before.” She suggested he take some Gaviscon and paracetamol, but it didn’t seem to help.
“He made himself some breakfast but the pain came back again and he said, ‘this heartburn is killing me’,” she recounted. When she proposed calling an ambulance, Jason declined, opting instead to go to the Morrisons petrol station across from their two-bedroom flat to buy some aspirin.
Jason “collapsed” in the street suffering a heart attack, which led to a passerby immediately starting CPR. The East Midlands Ambulance Service dispatched an extensive emergency response, including solo paramedics, two ambulances, and an air ambulance, and informed Caroline of the incident due to her proximity; her house is “literally a second away” from where it happened.
“I had this gut-wrenching feeling, I ran outside and the first thing I saw was Jason’s trainers,” she said. “I screamed at the top of my lungs, ran over to him and was trying to comfort him.”
She added that the public was incredibly supportive, assisting with CPR on Jason until the ambulance crew took over. Despite being told to wait inside because of her distress, Caroline witnessed the paramedics’ efforts as they managed to revive Jason twice, although his heart kept failing. After about 48 minutes of treatment in the ambulance, Caroline was informed by the paramedics that the outlook was grim.
“I went to the back of the ambulance and held his hand the whole way through while they put a scan on his heart to see if there was any activity,” she explained. Caroline faced the heartbreaking decision when she asked if there was any hope for recovery and was told there was a very slim chance.
“I asked if there was any way back from this but there was a very slim chance – I said if there was no way back, we need to turn the machines off and (the ambulance crew) agreed. They said that if we bring him back, his heart is going to keep failing.”
Caroline sat with Jason, “held his hand” and “kissed his forehead”. “They took the machines off him and took the tube out his mouth … I was with him until he took his last breath.” Caroline revealed that Jason was pronounced dead at 4.35pm and they waited for a coroner to arrive to take his body to the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham. “I’m reliving it every day,” she confessed.
“I can’t go into our bedroom, I start to get panicky when I go near it – that’s the last place he was.” Caroline is now awaiting the results of a post-mortem examination to establish Jason’s cause of death after an initial autopsy could not determine what caused the heart attack. She also discovered on October 14 that she is now seven weeks pregnant with Jason’s baby.
“I was feeling a bit unwell so I thought I’d take a test and it came back positive,” she explained. “I felt absolutely numb but then it felt like a miracle. When I feel really down and I can’t stop crying, I just think that I’ve got a part of him growing inside of me.”
To help their young daughter, Paignton, understand the loss, Caroline told her Jason is now “a star in the sky”.
“There’s loads of photos around the flat of all of us together and she’ll point going, ‘dada’,” she added. Caroline has since had to cancel the pair’s wedding plans as they were due to tie the knot on November 5.
“I’ve had to cancel the notice of marriage and things like the flowers – but I’m not too worried about them to be honest,” she admitted. To cope with the costs, she’s launched a crowdfunding campaign that has already gathered over £1,500 for Jason’s funeral expenses and to support their daughter’s needs.
“I’m thankful and overwhelmed for people’s generosity and support,” she expressed her gratitude.
