Fight to save dying man

From the archive, first published Thursday 12th Apr 2007.

PASSERS-BY have been praised for battling to save the life of a man believed to have suffered a heart attack in his car.

The man, aged about 60, was driving in Easter Avenue, Southend, at 10.15am on Wednesday, when he passed out and his car hit some railings.

People immediately tried to resuscitate him and he was later taken to hospital by ambulance.

He was declared dead there shortly afterwards.

But ambulance staff praised the efforts of people who tried to save him.

Emergency medical technician Joanne Stapleton said: "Sadly, the patient was declared dead a short time after arriving at A&E.

"However, it may be some comfort to the man's family to know that these three or four strangers gave him the best possible chance of survival.

"Some bystanders had watched the car go into the railings at low speed and saw the driver slumped over at the wheel.

"They called 999 straightaway and drag-ged the man out of the car.

"They could see he had no signs of life, so they quickly started chest compressions and mouth -to-mouth resuscitation.

"When we arrived a few minutes later, they were incredibly helpful.

"They told us exactly what had happened and carried on with the CPR for a moment while we un-loaded our equipment."

She added: "Every-thing happened so fast that my colleagues and I didn't get a chance to thank them properly.

"We don't have their names, but we hope they will accept our gratitude and feel good about the fact that they did the right thing in a very difficult situation.

"So often people hesitate to step in and help, but with cardiac arrests every second counts, and CPR is absolutely crucial."

The name of the man won't be released until he has been formally identified by his family.

Police are also waiting for a post mortem to take place to confirm the cause of death.