The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Firefighter reunited with man whose life he saved
Chris Kendall was wrongly told by police that heart attack victim Allan Hainey had died
A hero firefighter has been reunited with the man whose life he battled to save – but thought had died.
Chris Kendall gave CPR to the victim of a roadside heart attack in June last year, but was wrongly told by police the man, whose name he never knew, had passed away.
Chris, 33, was stunned in November last year to get a text out of the blue from a man called Allan Hainey identifying himself as the heart attack victim and thanking him for saving his life.
At the weekend, Chris, from Maidstone, Kent, met Allan, from Wishaw, North Lanarkshire, for the first time at his 60th birthday party.
A beaming Allan told Chris: “I’m so grateful. The doctors said to me that it was remarkable that I had survived, and that wouldn’t have been possible without what you did.
“The ambulance crew said I was the closest person to death they had ever seen after such a severe heart attack, but I made it through. I wouldn’t be here without Chris.”
Allan was travelling home from a holiday lodge last summer when he suffered an almost fatal heart attack.
Luckily, firefighter and former CPR instructor Chris spotted Allan being dragged from his car on the A1 near Cove in the Borders.
Chris, who was living in Kincardine at the time of Allan’s heart attack, stopped to deliver life-saving compressions for 15 minutes – to the tempo of Staying Alive by the Bee Gees.
Allan had a myocardial infarction so severe that it blew three holes in his heart, and without Chris’ intervention it is unlikely he would have survived.
However, when Chris contacted police to find out what happened to Allan, he was told that he had passed away.
In fact, a very much alive Allan had spent 52 days in hospital recovering and having a pacemaker fitted.
The Police Scotland IT worker was so grateful that he tracked Chris’ number down to thank him.
Chris said: “It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.
“It’s still very surreal to me, and it’s such a strange situation, but I couldn’t have wished for a better guy to have come across at the side of the road.”