A probation officer who collapsed in a gym and was brought back from the dead thanks to life-saving CPR is backing a Welsh Ambulance CPR day at a Swansea shopping centre.
Footballing hardman and actor Vinnie Jones has recently been promoting the value of life-saving resuscitation techniques and Lee Hoyles, 48, of Penllergaer, near Swansea, knows just how important they are.
Lee wouldn’t be alive today but for the quick thinking of a gym instructor who was trained in the use of a public access defibrillator by the Welsh Ambulance Service.
Now Lee, who works as a probation officer in Swansea, says he is right behind the special CPR day to be held at Swansea’s Quadrant Shopping Centre this month and says the more people who learn basic CPR the better as many more lives could be saved.
That’s the aim of the CPR event at the Quadrant Centre on Friday, July 27, 9am to 2pm. when Welsh Ambulance Service staff and Community First Responders will be on hand to demonstrate life-saving skills.
Lee said: “There is no doubt about it, I wouldn’t be here today had it not been for the instructor at Glamorgan Health and Racquet Club who came to my aid.
“I didn’t know I had an electrical fault in my heart, similar to the problem that Fabrice Muamba the Bolton player suffered from by the sounds of it. I had blocked arteries too and eventually had a quadruple heart by-pass operation.
“I was a regular at the gym and had already run about four miles on a running machine as part of my daily fitness work-out when it was as if the switch had been thrown and I just went down. I knew nothing until I woke up with people stood over me.”
He added: “I was training hard almost daily at my gym, the Glamorgan Health and Racquet Club. Thankfully they had a public access defibrillator on hand and a fantastic gym instructor who saved my life.”
The gym instructor, Huw Evans, was trained by the Welsh Ambulance Service and the service’s Public Access Defibrillator Officer Gerard Rothwell who has also trained the staff at the Quadrant Centre said: “Lee’s case is a perfect example of the importance of bystander CPR because having people on hand who know what to do is crucial.
“Specialist training in basic life support skills can and really does save lives. The earlier someone suffering from a heart attack receives defibrillation, the greater the chance of survival. We teach people very simple, basic procedures – they are simple, effective – and they work.
“What we teach is how to manage a person who’s collapsed, how to do oxygen therapy and how to use a defibrillator. People normally don’t die of a cut finger or a broken leg but you will die if your heart stops and the patient left with no immediate intervention. It’s as simple as that.”
Huw Evans, from Neath, was the man who knew what t do and he said: “I know Lee quite well as he is a regular. I saw him lying by the side of a running machine with some other members around him. I could see he was clearly in trouble and called for the defib machine.
“The on-duty manager, Gemma Petty, brought me the machine by which time I had already done the necessary checks and begun chest compressions and mouth to mouth. I am trained to use the defib machine and to be honest it does most of the work for you.
“I attached the machine to Lee and, after analysing his condition the machine recommended I shock him which I did. It then recommended I continue with CPR for two minutes and then a second analysis recommended no further shocks but continued CPR which I carried on with.”
A bewildered Lee then began to come around as paramedics arrived to take over from Huw and transport him to Morriston Hospital and he says he will always be grateful for the fact someone was on hand who know what to do.
Lee said: “I couldn’t have had better treatment. And my life was saved thanks to my gym instructor and the Welsh Assembly Government’s Public Access Defibrillator (PADS) programme. Then the paramedics, and all the NHS staff at Morriston Hospital, were absolutely brilliant.
“I am in no doubt we need to have more public access defib machines and more people trained in basic CPR. So many lives are lost due to the fact there’s no one on hand when someone collapses who knows what to do.
“That’s why events such as the CPR day at the Quadrant are so worthwhile. If just one life is saved through someone learning the basics, then it’s definitely worthwhile, no doubt about it.
“In fact I’d go further and have public access defibrillators in every supermarket, library, public building and even pub along with people trained in how to use them.
“I certainly recommend that anyone who has a spare few minutes pops along to the Quadrant and watches a demonstration and learns how to give basic CPR. Imagine how good you’d feel if you saved someone’s life?”
