My team of lifesavers
Jogger survives heart attack in street as strangers band together
STRANGERS thrown together by fate say they have formed an ‘unbreakable bond’ after working ‘like a well-oiled machine’ to save a jogger dying from a heart attack.
Alan Cleghorn, 56, was out with his running partner and neighbour, Vivienne Magowan, when he collapsed in the road just 500 yards from home.
Seeing what had happened, schoolgirl Laura Barrie, 16, made her mother Sarah, a teacher, stop their car as she dialled 999. As marketing executive Mrs Magowan, 56, put Mr Cleghorn in the recovery position, Mrs Barrie, 53, directed traffic around him.
At that point, motorist Mick Charnley, 51, who was on his way home from his job as a facilities engineer, pulled up and rushed over to help. Despite having no medical training he followed the instructions of the emergency operator and administered chest compressions to Mr Cleghorn.
As Mr Cleghorn’s wife Barbara arrived, another passing motorist, aerospace engineer Brett Fielding, 36, a St John Ambulance-trained first aider, took over the compressions on Mr Cleghorn’s chest as they battled to keep him alive.
When paramedics arrived at the scene in February of the 2017, drama Mr in Cleghorn, Blackburn, a fit and active retired software engineer, was first taken to his local A&E, and then on to Blackpool Victoria Hospital where he had emergency surgery.
Despite fearing the worst for her husband of four years, Mrs Cleghorn had had the presence of mind to ask Mrs Magowan to get everyone’s names and contact details. And a week after her husband was discharged, the couple invited his saviours to their home to treat them to a meal.
And immediately clicking as friends, the group – who all live either in or just outside Blackburn – began enjoying get togethers and nights out, and even went to Mr Fielding’s wedding in Portugal. Mrs Cleghorn, 67, said yesterday: ‘We shared a pretty life-changing moment together, and that really bonds you to each other. The selfless intervention of these people saved him. The doctors told us that without their actions, Alan would probably not have survived, or at the least would have suffered brain damage.’
Despite his healthy appearance, Mr Cleghorn, who had lost both his parents in their 50s to heartrelated conditions, was lucky to survive anterior artery his heart was almost attack, entirely as his clogged with fatty deposits. The couple have now nominated their new friends for a St John Ambulance Everyday Heroes award in gratitude.
Mr Fielding said: ‘We all worked like a well- oiled machine. Afterwards ,though, as we got in the car, I just burst into tears – it was an incredibly emotional experience.’
‘We all worked like a well-oiled machine’