The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Heart patient has mystery hero to thank for saving his life
Fife man on the mend and desperate to find Edinburgh bust stop ambulance caller
A grateful heart patient is pleading for help in finding the Good Samaritan he credits with saving his life.
The mystery hero phoned an ambulance after finding security guard Richard Clowes slumped at a bus stop.
Richard, from Leslie, Glenrothes, was suffering septic shock and was close to death after a pacemaker fitted just months before spread severe infection.
Speaking from his hospital bed at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, the 42-year-old says he has no recollection of the incident which happened in the west end of the city.
He said: “I don’t know whether they were young, old, male or female – I’d just like to say thank you.”
Richard’s partner Shirley Connolly, 45, said: “He nearly died.
“We thought he had a chest infection and he shouldn’t have gone to work but he’s a workaholic.”
Shirley gave Richard a lift to Glenrothes bus station on the morning of December 3 and waved him off at around 11am.
He took a bus heading for the west of the capital and his job at the Co-op, but what happened next is a mystery.
When Richard failed to show back at the bus station at 10.30pm, Shirley thought he had missed the bus.
The true extent of Richard’s dice with death only started to emerge on the drive home.
When Shirley phoned the hospital she discovered Richard was fighting for his life in intensive care.
She added: “I texted him later on to ask how he was feeling but there was no response.
“My phone was ringing but I left it because I was driving. By the time I parked the car up, it had stopped ringing.
“It was an Edinburgh number and when I rang it said it didn’t accept incoming calls – I thought OK, that’s the hospital.
“He was semi-conscious and confused. He didn’t know he was in hospital – it was horrible.”
Doctors told Richard a pacemaker he had fitted just a few months earlier had caused an infection – and said he was lucky to be alive.
A month later and Richard is finally on the mend and has been transferred first to a renal high dependency ward and now a general ward to recover.
Shirley added: “They said when they pulled the pacemaker out he’d get really sick because they scraped all the infection out with it.
“All the ambulance notes state that he was at a bus stop in Edinburgh but not the street.
“I know it is a long shot but Richard would really like to say thank you to the person that didn’t think he was a random drunk or drug addict and got him an ambulance, they saved his life.”