Heartfelt hug of life

Vicki: He told me how to save hubby

STARTING TOMORROW VICKI Langley was moved to tears when she met the man whose calm voice helped her save the life of her husband, Pete Langley, when he suffered a heart attack in bed.

When Mrs Langley met emergency medical dispatcher Geoff Hayes on Monday she said it was like being reunited with an old friend.

Mr Langley – now a former smoker – spent 17 days in an induced coma and has had two small mesh tubes inserted in his arteries.

The 58-year-old truck driver thanked his wife, paramedics and doctors who helped him survive multiple heart attacks two months ago.

Mrs Langley said her husband had begun to convulse while asleep in bed at about 1am.

“I thought he was having a bad dream and then I tried to wake him but then I knew something was wrong and I called the ambulance,” she said. “And then I got Geoff and he was just amazing.

“He kept really calm and told me what to do.”

Mrs Langley performed resuscitation on her husband until, four minutes later, an ambulance arrived at the Ner- ang home with paramedics Steffie Robinson and Belinda Donkers.

“Then the girls came and I’ve never been so happy to see anyone in my life – they’re just amazing,” Mrs Langley said.

“They were extraordinary and I didn’t realise I was going to meet Geoff today.

“I’m really so glad I got to meet him.”

Mr Hayes said it meant a lot to be able to meet Mr and Mrs Langley. “It’s special,” he said. “For me, this is awesome – we see very little and then we move on to the next person, so two minutes after talking to Vicki I’ll be off talking to someone else.”

Paramedic Steffie Robinson said Mrs Langley’s resuscitation had been so good it probably saved her husband’s life.

“Starting CPR straight away and doing it well makes a big difference – you have to get oxygenated blood circulating as early as possible,” Ms Robinson said.

“All up, it was about seven minutes of CPR and we shocked (defibrillated) him three times to get his (heart) rhythm back to normal.

“About 10 minutes later he went back into cardiac arrest and we had to shock him again.”

Pictures: REGI VARGHESE Vicki Langley hugs paramedic Geoff Hayes, who helped her save her husband’s life; and (above) the Langleys with Mr Hayes and Steffie Robinson.