They were amazing – they saved my husband’s life. Make sure you learn CPR in case it happens to you.

Tuesday 15^th October 2019 – 12.21pm – Murray MacGregor.

“They were amazing.” The words of a wife when she met the two ambulance crews who saved her husband’s life after he suffered a cardiac arrest.

Jenny and Mark Roberts from Brierley Hill were staying with friends on a caravan site in Ombersley, Worcestershire last November.

During the afternoon, Mark started to feel unwell but then, without warning turned grey and passed out.  His heart had stopped; he was in cardiac arrest.

In such circumstances every second counts.  Every minute without CPR decreases chances of survival by 10%!  The numbers speak for themselves:

In Norway, when a patient has a cardiac arrest outside hospital, in 73% of cases a member of the public or a family member does CPR – the survival rate is 25%.  Compare that to the UK where cardiac arrest patients only get support in around 50% of cases which leads to just a 7% survival rate.

Jenny says Milind Kumar Karday, the call handler who answered, was brilliant keeping her calm and telling her what to do.  She says you have to be ready because Mark had none of the classic symptoms of a cardiac arrest or heart attack; chest pains:

Two ambulance crews were immediately dispatched while Mark and Jenny’s friends performed vital CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) on Mark, buying him time until the crews arrived.

Paramedics John Fryer, Lorraine McHugh, Michelle Adams and Anna Borecka were quickly on the scene, but that was just the start of the fight to save Mark.

Jenny and Mark got to meet the crews who attended to him at a meeting of the WMAS Trust Board at the end of January.

Mark and Jenny say it is difficult to put into words just how much it means to meet the people who saved Mark’s life:

Mark’s life was saved by the speedy recognition that he was in cardiac arrest and having someone there to do CPR until the ambulance staff arrived and took over.

Mark says he hadn’t ever really considered just how important the work of the ambulance service and all of the emergency service is until this happened.

Both he and Jenny now want everyone to take note of the incredible work of ambulance staff and also do their bit to help and learn basic life support.

(L-R: Anna Borecka, Michelle Adams, Mark Roberts, Jenny Roberts, Lorraine McHugh and John Fryer)