HERO SAVES MAN’S LIFE ON STREET
FAMILY TRACE THE PASSER-BY WHO SAVED THE LIFE OF GRANDAD WHO’D COLLAPSED IN THE STREET
A HEROIC passer-by who performed CPR in a Cardiff street after a grandad had a heart attack has been tracked down by grateful family members.
Bobby Gamlin’s family said they can’t thank Aneurin Metcalfe enough after the 22-year-old found him collapsed on Albany Road and did CPR for 10 minutes until paramedics got to the scene.
As reported in Friday’s Echo, they had been trying to find him to say thank you after being told a young man had stepped in to help when Bobby went into cardiac arrest.
Now Bobby, 55, has texted thanks from his hospital bed saying: “Tell him a huge thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
The 22-year-old factory worker said his first aid training kicked in but he only knew what to do because he learned CPR with Torfaen Sea Cadets aged 15.
Aneurin saw Bobby collapsed in the street when he came out of the post office on Albany Road with girlfriend Lauren Smith earlier this month.
“He was lying on the plant pot outside and his friend asked if anyone was a life-saver.
“I checked his pulse and it was clear he was going fast so Lauren helped me get him on the ground so I could do CPR,” he said.
Shockingly some passers-by began heckling Aneurin and told him to stop because they didn’t understand what he was doing.
CPR can look quite violent because you have to compress the chest hard and in a steady rhythm, said Aneurin.
“It is really hard work and afterwards my arms were dead. You have to use all your might and strength to compress the chest and it’s got to be non-stop.
“I had been going for 10 minutes before the ambulance crew arrived and people were screaming at me to stop, but I knew I couldn’t.
“I knew I had to focus on what I was doing, not on them, because his life depended on it.
“When the first rapid response paramedic arrived he told me to keep going until he found an airway and then the ambulance crew came and took over.”
Bobby was rushed to the University Hospital of Wales (UHW) where he was on life support for five days and in the intensive care unit until being released on to the cardiac ward, said his sister Mary Taylor.
Mary, a district nurse, who has also worked in accident and emergency at UHW, said Aneurin was a hero for his actions on February 11.
“I know how hard doing CPR is, I have done it in accident and emergency at UHW with back up teams to take over when you get tired, but he kept it up for 10 minutes. We can’t thank him enough. I know it was a team effort after ambulances arrived, but Aneurin kept Bobby’s circulation going and we could have lost him without that.”
Mary met Aneurin at a social distance on Sunday to thank him.
Bobby, who is still too unwell to speak properly, sent a text saying: “Please tell him a huge thank you from the bottom of my heart. I want to shake his hand and buy him a drink and let him know how thankful I am to him for saving my life.”
The widowed grandfather is doing well, but has no date for being released from hospital and can have no visitors because of the Covid pandemic.
Mary said Bobby was made redundant from his job as a security guard last year and had been waiting to meet a friend when he collapsed on Albany Road.
If he had not been early for that meeting he might have fallen ill in his home nearby, where he lives alone.
“I am so thankful he was early and that Aneurin was there and knew how to do CPR,” she said.
Mary and Aneurin said CPR should be taught in schools. They are backing a campaign by the charity Welsh Hearts to make CPR part of the curriculum.
Mary said it was particularly sad passers-by heckled Aneurin because they didn’t know how CPR worked or trust what he was doing. Instead of realising he was saving a life, some had shouted out that he was killing him.
“It is disgraceful he was shouted at and heckled,” said Mary.
“Too many lives are lost to cardiac arrest and CPR should be taught in schools as part of the curriculum.”
Welsh Hearts director Sharon Owen said: “All schools in Wales should make CPR training mandatory for students – as more and more adolescents are becoming victims of sudden cardiac arrest, especially during sporting events.
“Hundreds of lives could be saved in Wales each year if students were taught CPR from a young age.”