 Ron met the people who helped save his life at the shopping centre |
A pensioner who collapsed in a busy shopping centre has met the people who saved his life to say thank you. Ron Hawkins, 80, had a heart attack at Touchwood Shopping Centre, Solihull, in April and his heart stopped beating.
But thanks to staff trained to use defibrillators - and a retired doctor who was nearby - he was resuscitated.
The defibrillators work by delivering a controlled electric shock through the chest wall to the heart to restore a normal heartbeat after cardiac arrest.
Cardiac arrests cause the heart either to quiver - known as fibrillation - or stop beating altogether.
Mr Hawkins has since had a double by-pass operation.
He told BBC News: "They have all been brilliant to me, you just don't know how to thank them all really.
"You can say thank you but it's not enough for what they have done for me.
"I mean, they cured my heart, I was dead once in there plus, I opened up the back of my head - it's a hard floor in there."
The shopping centre is equipped with three defibrillators - donated by the British Heart Foundation - and 20 staff have been trained to use them by West Midlands Ambulance Service.
Warren Greatrex, who works at the shopping centre, was first on the scene and said Mr Hawkins looked "lifeless".
"We had to great concerns for him. We all worked together as a team through the defibrillator scheme to get Ron back to the man he is today."
Retired GP Dr Chris Stockdale added: "My initial concern was that we were not going to be able to revive him it was, at the time, extremely worrying."
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We all worked together as a team through the defibrillator scheme to get Ron back to the man he is today
