A HEARTY THANKS!
A BEDWORTH dad has thanked medics who saved his life when they re-started his heart after he collapsed.
Paramedic Jason Hardcastle, technician Simon Lees and Holly Castle, a student paramedic from Coventry University, found Jim Crosswell clutching onto a wall in a serious condition.
He had started experiencing chest pains, but managed to call 999 on his mobile phone before collapsing in the street. The crew knew he was having a heart attack and began treatment whilst rapidly transferring him to University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire.
But the dad’s condition worsened en route to hospital as he suffered a cardiac arrest, but the quick actions of Jason, Simon and Holly meant they quickly restarted his heart. He rearrested a number of times whilst transferring to the emergency department at hospital, where hospital staff worked with the ambulance crew to restart his heart once again.
Thankfully Jim survived and he and his grateful son went to visit the team to say thank you for giving him more time to spend with his family, pass on gifts and learn more about the day that, understandably, is one which he could not remember.
“It was only right that we say thanks for the very special and selfless work the NHS as a whole do, every day,” Jim said. “We will always [be] forever grateful for the opportunity to spend more time together as a family.
“To have an ambulance service whose staff are as dedicated, motivated and compassionate in caring for others, when they are at their lowest and most vulnerable time, is incredibly reassuring.”
Steve Hargreaves, West Midlands Ambulance Service’s Coventry operations manager, said: “It was a very special and emotive moment for Jim and Paul to meet and speak to the very people that, in their opinion, were angels.
“A very big well done to the crew for the excellent level of care they provided in this case. What is of particularly note is that for Holly, this was the first time she had witnessed this clinical scenario and level of treatment so it was fantastic that were all able to see Jim in hospital, albeit briefly, later that day, sitting up looking a lot better than he did when they had been called out to him earlier in the day.”