A MAN who had a cardiac arrest shortly after suffering a heart attack has been reunited with the ambulance crew who saved his life.
Jim Crosswell from Bedworth was walking home on Februrary 16 when he experienced chest pains.
He managed to call 999 on his mobile phone before collapsing in the street.
West Midlands Ambulance Service crew Jason Hardcastle (paramedic), Simon Lees (technician) and Holly Castle (student paramedic from Coventry University) had just booked on duty at Coventry hub.
They rushed to the scene to find Jim in a serious condition and clutching a wall.
The crew quickly diagnosed that Jim was having a heart attack and began treatment whilst rapidly transferring him to University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire.
Jim’s conditioned worsened en-route to hospital as he suffered a cardiac arrest, but thankfully the quick actions of Jason, Simon and Holly meant they quickly restarted his heart.
Jim rearrested a number of times whilst transferring to the hospital’s Emergency Department where hospital staff worked with the ambulance crew to restart his heart once again.
Jim, and his son Paul, are under no doubt the actions of the ambulance crew saved his life that day, and they were thrilled to be reunited so they could say ‘thank you’, pass on gifts and ultimately learn more about the day that, understandably, the patient has very little recollection of.
Jim said: “It was only right that we say thanks for the very special and selfless work the NHS as a whole do, every day.
“We will always forever grateful for the opportunity to spend more time together as a family.
“To have an ambulance service whose staff are as dedicated, motivated and compassionate in caring for others, when they are at their lowest and most vulnerable time, is incredibly reassuring.”
Coventry operations manager, Steve Hargreaves, said: “It was a very special and emotive moment for Jim and Paul to meet and speak to the very people that, in their opinion, were angels.
“A very big well done to the crew for the excellent level of care they provided in this case.
“What is of particular note is that for Holly, this was the first time she had witnessed this clinical scenario and level of treatment so it was fantastic they were all able to see Jim in hospital, albeit briefly, later that day, sitting up looking a lot better than he did when they had been called out to him earlier in the day.”
