Scot’s fight to save woman on bridge
A SCOT celebrating his engagement in London ended up giving CPR to a woman who died in Saturday night’s horror.
David Anderson and Sam Thom were toasting their engagement near London Bridge when the atrocity unfolded.
Trained lifeguard David, 29, performed CPR on the badly injured woman for 45 minutes, aided by the woman’s fiance and a policeman, but she died.
Paramedics told them to stop because it was too late to save her.
It’s believed she was Canadian Christine Archibald, 30.
David and Sam initially thought there had been a hit-and-run.
David, from Bellshill, Lanarkshire, said: “I looked out the window and could see a girl lying in the road.
“I went outside, gave her a quick assessment and started CPR because she wasn’t breathing and her injuries were serious.
“Her fiance was first aid-trained, too, so we started doing two-man CPR.
“A police officer came and gave me a break on the compressions, then he got a defibrillator, but it wouldn’t do anything because there was no heartbeat. We kept going until the paramedics arrived.
“We were working on her for a good 45 minutes but eventually they called it and that was it, we stopped.
“After that, I went and helped with a Kiwi guy, but his injuries had been patched up and he was in an ambulance, so I just kept him talking.
“Then there was a girl with spinal cord injuries on a board which needed lifting, so I helped with that.”
David and Sam, 25, had come to London on Saturday and are staying in the UK capital until tomorrow, when they fly to New York.
David said he had been on the scene for five or 10 minutes before he realised there were other casualties across the bridge.
He praised the emergency services for their incredible work. David added: “The medics had so much determination when we were working on that girl, even with the extent of her injuries.
“They just kept going, nonstop, we all did. It took a while before we realised what else had happened.”
While David was performing first aid, Sam heard gunshots and was told to flee by police officers.
She ran back across the bridge towards Tooley Street, where she waited for David.
Sam, from Kilmarnock, added: “I tried to go back for David but they wouldn’t let me, and they started putting tape up.
“We could hear loads of noises and bangs and that’s when we knew it was more than just a car accident.”