Volunteer medic saves schoolgirl after heart attack (From Echo)

First responder Stever beats the ambulance by five minutes

7:30am Wednesday 15th July 2009 in News By Michelle Archard

Hero – first responder Steve Hockley with his lifesaving kit

A TEENAGE girl who suffered a heart attack at school was saved by quick-thinking staff and a volunteer medic.

The 17-year-old, who has not been named, started having a fit at Westcliff High School for Girls, then went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing.

Two school staff started to giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and called for an ambulance. Community first responder Steve Hockley answered the call and was there within two minutes.

The girl was put on a heart monitor and was given a shock from a defibrillator. She is now recovering in Southend Hospital.

First responder Steve, from Leigh, said: “I ran over, checked the patient, then asked the two staff members to continue CPR (mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and heart massage) while I got the defib set up.

“The machine advised me to shock the patient, so I did, did CPR.

“I’m trained in first aid, but we all have to have special training in using a defibrillator and oxygen. We go to anything life-threatening to ensure somebody gets there within eight minutes. Every second counts in those situations.”

First responder Steve Hockley

“The rapid response team arrived and the machine then advised me to give her another shock. As I started CPR again, the crew arrived and put her onto their machine, so we could check the patient.”

By then, the girl was breathing enough for them to stop CPR. She was carried to an ambulance and taken to hospital, where she is now said to be in a stable condition.

Modest Steve, 45, from Benfleet, added: “I went back to work, but soon received a call from the doctor at the hospital, asking me to attend.

“When I arrived, he and the crew congratulated me for what I had done.”

First responders are volunteers who have everyday jobs, but drop them to answer 999 calls. Because they are local, they tend to arrive ahead of paramedics and start emergency treatment right away.

Steve, a caretaker at Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School, Leigh, was with the patient five minutes before before the ambulance .

He said: “I’m trained in first aid, but we all have to have special training in using a defibrillator and oxygen.

“We go to anything life-threatening to ensure somebody gets there within eight minutes. Every second counts in those situations.”

Paramedic Laurie Phillipson, the Leigh responders’ ambulance contact, praised for Steve.

She said: “It’s a credit to Steve and the community first responder scheme we get this kind of positive patient outcome.”

Westcliff High School for Girls would not talk to the Echo about the incident.

However, Jane Theadom, Southend Council’s head of school support and preventative services, said: “A pupil at Westcliff High School for Girls was taken ill on Monday morning.

“Staff acted swiftly and appropriately, the girl’s parents were contacted, an ambulance was called and the pupil is being treated in hospital.”