Doctor’s livesaving start to her first day on job

A NEWLY-QUALIFIED junior doctor saved the life of her first ‘patient’ hours before even starting work at the hospital.

Bonnie Boyle, 26, had recently moved to Scotland from Belfast and was driving around to familiarise herself with the city before taking up a post at Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

But as the newly-qualified medic stopped at a shopping centre to get her bearings, an elderly man collapsed nearby after suffering a cardiac arrest.

She rushed over and began performing CPR – the first time that she had ever carried out the lifesaving technique on a real patient.

The man had turned blue by the time she reached him, but her quick actions saved his life.

Dr Boyle, pictured, said she did not know if it was just luck or ‘some sort of divine intervention’ that she happened to be on the scene at exactly that moment but she hoped it was a good omen for her future career.

She said: ‘In the walkway between all the shops, this gentleman had fallen backwards, so I saw it happening.

‘I think he was probably late 70s, early 80s. He wasn’t with anyone but there were people around. He had gone blue and there were kids around that were quite upset.

‘It did take me a couple of seconds before I realised, ‘‘Oh yeah, I’m a doctor now’’, so I went over and was just assessing the situation.

‘I’ve never given CPR in real life, just on the dummies they give us.

‘Then he started to come around and we continued with the CPR until the paramedics came and they took him away on a gurney.’

The man regained consciousness and was taken to hospital for treatment from the Lochs Shopping Centre in Easterhouse. He was last night said to be recovering well.