A courageous bystander and the rapid response of South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) crews have been praised after a man collapsed at a local railway station.
"I’m grateful every single day to everyone who saved me that day," said John Callan, as he enjoyed a reunion with the Guildford and Farnborough teams who responded to the 999 call. "I'm in awe of all these people."
In October two years ago, John arrived at North Camp station to catch a train to Guildford. He remembers feeling some chest pain that morning, but it soon went and he dismissed it as a muscle strain. But as he sat down at the platform to wait for his train, he blacked out.
Toby Laycock from Ash Vale was the only other person on that side of the station and saw John topple face first from the bench onto the platform floor.
“He saw me go down, called 999, and did what the call handler said,” added John. “He responded immediately and was amazing.”
Emergency medical advisor Rain Gavin took Toby’s call, talking him through CPR until SECAmb crews could get to the scene. “Toby was so brave for stepping up without any hesitation,” she said. “He followed the instructions to the letter. He never stopped until he was relieved by the crew, he was brilliant.”
Paramedic Chris Smith said having a member of the public willing to start CPR is vital in improving cardiac arrest survival rates: “If it wasn’t for Toby and what he did, none of us would have had a chance to save you.”
Toby was sent a letter from SECAmb’s chief executive Simon Weldon, thanking him for his actions in helping to save John’s life.
The team administered eight shocks from a defibrillator before rushing to John to hospital.
“Lucky doesn’t begin to cover how I feel. It’s off the scale gratitude from me,” John said, as his full recovery meant he celebrated his Ruby wedding anniversary in the past year as well as seeing his son get married.
“You’ve never been to a wedding with so many tears and hugging,” he joked. “Because we all knew it could have been so different. Honestly, you are all stars. Rest assured, you will stay in my thoughts every day for the rest of my life.”
Stephanie, John's wife, told the crews how grateful she was. "It's not just John's life that you saved, it's what you've also done for my life and so many other people who are touched by this! At the wedding, so many people said to pass on their thanks to you as well. All the ripple effects of what you do, it's huge."