HEART attack survivor Rob Waggett from Newport has a lot to smile about after he and his two sons were declared clear of heart problems.

Despite his heart stopping for 18 minutes last year, Mr Waggett survived with only slight short-term memory loss and, following eight months of tests, he has been told there is nothing wrong with his heart.

The reason the otherwise healthy 32-year-old suffered a shock heart attack continues to baffle doctors, who thought he might suffer from Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS) - which can cause unexpected cardiac arrests.

Mr Waggett and his wife, Dianna, 30, were also concerned genetic heart problems might have been passed onto their children, Mylo, three, and Koby, one, but tests on their hearts came back negative last week.

Mr Waggett said:“It was a relief to get my results back and have the tests over with, but my biggest relief was when the children’s tests came back negative. Now they can live their lives and run around without having to worry about heart problems.”

Earlier this year, we reported how Mrs Waggett thought her husband had 'died' in her arms last December, but her efforts, and those of a neighbour and paramedics, to resuscitate him at their Malpas home saved his life.

He had an device similar to a pacemaker fitted to control his heart rhythm and underwent ten tests to find what caused his heart attack.

These included having pieces of his heart removed to test for SADS, assessing his cholesterol levels and testing for Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which disrupts the heartbeat’s normal rhythm.

All test results came back negative and he hopes to return to work at Caerphilly council’s contact centre in the winter.