Jessica saves dad’s life
14-year-old performs CPR after father stopped breathing
WHEN Jessica Hough’s dad Christopher stopped breathing in the early hours of Christmas Day she knew just what to do.
The 14-year-old went to his aide and starting doing chest compressions – to the tunes of Nelly the Elephant and the Bee Gees’ classic Stayin’ Alive – exactly as she’d been taught to do in a CPR lesson in primary school.
Christopher, 51, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and is unable to talk or walk, was rushed to hospital with sepsis where he is currently in a stable and comfortable condition.
Mum Phillipa realised something was wrong when she went to give Christopher his pain medication at around 2am.
She noticed Christopher’s breathing wasn’t right and then suddenly it stopped altogether.
Phillipa immediately phoned for an ambulance to come to their Bacup home – while Jessica, a pupil at Whitworth High School, near Rochdale, started CPR.
Jessica said: “We tried to wake him up and he wouldn’t wake up so we phoned the ambulance, and they told us to put him on the floor because he wasn’t breathing right – and then he stopped breathing.
“Then they said you’re going to need to do CPR.”
Despite the panicked situation, Jessica says she was able to remember the lesson from primary school.
She said: “They taught us how to do it and they used a couple of different songs. They did Nelly the Elephant and Stayin’ Alive and they were just in my head when I was doing it, and I just zoned out and concentrated on doing it. Finally, just before we got told the ambulance was here, my dad coughed and gasped and started breathing again. It was scary but I just did what I needed to do. I’d do anything for my dad.”
Jessica’s dream is to become a paramedic, and she hopes to volunteer with the St John Ambulance.
Her dad Christopher was diagnosed with MS in 2005 and before having to quit his job due to the illness he worked as a joiner in Ramsbottom. Phillipa says she was amazed at her daughter’s life-saving actions. She said: “She was just so cool and calm. I was just so amazed that she wasn’t flustered or anything. If anything I was, but she just got in there and did it and saved his life. I’m very proud of her.
“He’s already quite poorly with MS so for him to pull through with her help would be amazing.
“So it just shows teaching the little ones CPR works.”