A Horsham businessman who suffered a heart attack has been reunited with the SECAmb “angels” who saved his life.
Jon Hadaway was in the queue at Strawberry Fields Tea Room in Faygate on June 26, the hottest day of the year, when he collapsed and fell backwards after going into cardiac arrest.
Fortunately, off-duty Clinical Supervisor and Paramedic Steff Barlow and Associate Ambulance Practitioner Cathy Lippert happened to be in the queue with their children and Steff immediately sprang into action to save Jon’s life.
Steff performed CPR on the 91-year-old, before other crew members Jenny Young and Hayley Nichols arrived on the scene.
Jon, who lives in Horsham and served in the RAF, spoke of his gratitude as he reunited with the crew at Gatwick Make Ready Centre on 28 August.
He said “I have never met any real angels until now. Today is a day that I am very lucky to see. That I am here at all is entirely due to the fabulous efforts that Steff and the other crew made to save my life.
My family and I would like to express our deepest thanks to them all for their heroic efforts on that day.
Jon spent five days in East Surrey Hospital with his wife of 67 years, Pam, also 91, by his side. He had a pacemaker fitted and said he was “feeling perfect again”.
Pam and Jon met at school 80 years ago.
Jon was based at RAF St Eval, Cornwall in the 50s, before moving to Horsham in 1958, working in East Street. He then opened Trafalgar Television in Horsham in 1984.
Jon was joined at the reunion by Pam, his son, Nick, 64, and daughter, Sarah, 59.