Hero by-passers save man's life with 20 minutes of CPR near Wolverhampton
These lifesavers jumped into action administering CPR after a man collapsed during the height of the coronavirus lockdown.
Isla Harvey was leaving her mother's house in The Avenue, Featherstone, on June 2 when she saw a man on the ground.
The Featherstone Academy preschool setting manager along with her colleague Trudy Nicholls, who also happened to be in the area, didn't waste a second and started mouth-to-mouth and chest compressions on Mick Banner, who is a friend of Isla's family.
They carried on until paramedics arrived and took him to hospital where he stayed for 10 days and has not only recovered, but is now away enjoying a holiday.
Isla, 38, said: "I came out of my mum's house and heard a man saying I need an ambulance.
"I ran over and at the time he was still breathing but he was making a gargling noise.
"He did respond initially, I got him in the recovery position then he lost a lot of blood.
"He then took a gasp then lost colour and stopped breathing.
"Trudy came to help and I was rolling him back onto his back and Trudy and I administered CPR for 20 minutes.
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"I was giving him mouth-to-mouth and Trudy was doing chest compressions.
"My husband was with me and he went to fetch a defibrillator from the school we work at and we shocked him three times and couldn't get a response.
"Then the ambulance came after about 20 minutes, they saw what we were doing and said carry on you're doing a good job then put on all their protective gear.
"They told me to stop mouth-to-mouth but said they wouldn't be carrying on giving him mouth-to-mouth because of coronavirus.
"They took our defibrillator off and fitted their defibrillator and gave him oxygen."
The mother-of-one said she later found out Mick had gone into cardiac arrest and said it was "rewarding" to think they had helped him.
"We obviously both have first aid training from our job, it was just instinctive to help so we did," she added.
"We've administered first aid at work before but I haven't done CPR – I'm hoping I never have to do it again.
"Covid didn't enter our heads, you just look and see what was happening and think, I can help.
"It is rewarding to think, yes I helped, I made a difference."
She added: "When the ambulance came in full PPE we did think 'Oh, we haven't got any kind of protection'.
"I rang our boss after so we didn't go back to school until we knew we were OK.
"Mick had a Covid test in hospital and was clear.
"His daughter Lucy Edwards got in touch online and said thank you and kept us updated on how he was doing.
"We found out he had a massive cardiac arrest. He's now been fitted with a pacemaker.
"He was in hospital for 10 days and he's actually on holiday this week."
