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February 2014
Heart attack victim says thanks By Sandie Marshall A HOLME Valley heart attack victim has finally said thank you to the man who refused to give him up for dead. Holmfirth pool lifeguard John Thompson spent eight minutes performing resuscitation on Martin Smith after a huge heart attack hit the 69-year-old while he was cycling. Thanks to his training, John, 29, knew exactly what to do, and kept Martin alive with CPR massage until paramedics arrived. Six months on, Martin has tracked John down and said an emotional thank you to his good Samaritan. The drama happened last summer as Martin was riding his bike through Wilshaw near Meltham. John was driving behind when he noticed something was wrong. He said: “He started to weave all over the road and I knew he was in trouble. “He lost control and crashed his bike on the
“This is a skill that really can save lives.I was incredibly lucky that John was there and I am alive today because of his training.” other side of the road.” John jumped out of his car and quickly realised Martin’s heart had stopped. He said: “I started to perform CPR as I had done in training many times. Other people stopped to help and called the ambulance. “I kept it going for eight minutes. It was incredibly stressful. “You just hope you’re doing the right thing when it suddenly happens for real.” Paramedics were able to use a defibrillator to get Martin’s heart beating again before rushing him to hospital where he spent a week in intensive care. Now, with his life now almost back to normal,
Martin was determined to find his life saver. “I have no memory of the incident at all,” he said. “I had to track him down and asked the ambulance service to help me.” Unbeknown to him, John had also made several attempts to find the mystery cyclist and so was delighted to see him again. Martin is in no doubt that John’s training and cool head saved his life and the pair want to find ways of promoting resuscitation training to more people. “This is a skill that really can save lives,” said Martin. “I was incredibly lucky that John was there and I am alive today because of his training.”
Martin says a heartfelt thank you to his lifesaver John.