- Woman saved her husband’s life by giving CPR after he collapsed at home
- She had never been trained but called 999 and was talked through the process
- How to give CPR – follow the advice below
- Would you feel confident giving someone CPR? Take part in our poll
A WOMAN has told how she saved the life of her husband by giving him cardio-pulmonary resuscitation when he collapsed at their home after going into cardiac arrest.
Linda Gully (59), who had never been trained in CPR, heard ‘a thud’ and found her husband Peter lying on the floor in their home in St Saviour last month.
But instead of panicking, she phoned 999 and calmly gave her husband of 20 years chest compressions while being talked through the process by call operator Tony Donnelly.
- Cardio-pulmonary resuscitation involves mouth-to-mouth respiration and chest compressions
- It enables blood to circulate to vital organs like the brain and the heart and can keep a person alive until they can be professionally treated
- It involves chest compressions at least five centimetres deep and at a rate of at least 100 a minute
- Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation was developed in 1956 and CPR was developed four years later
- CPR alone is unlikely to restart a heart its main purpose is to delay tissue death and permanent brain damage
And thanks to his wife’s quick actions, Mr Gully, who is retired, is recovering at home and is looking forward to getting back on the golf course.
‘For me it was easy to take in,’ Mrs Gully said. ‘I was in the zone.
‘Mr Donnelly made me feel at ease and his voice was a comfort because I knew that I had a professional person on the end of the phone.
‘The instructions were perfect. I cannot thank the staff enough.’
Mr Gully had been complaining of chest pains and visited his doctor the day before he collapsed.
He was prescribed medication for angina and returned home.
The next day, the 67-year-old collapsed while sitting at his computer two hours before the pair were due to go on holiday.
Mr Donnelly, who has worked as an emergency call operator for four years, said: ‘It is crucial that you remain calm.
‘They need to be able to listen to us and they won’t be able to give treatment if they are not calm, so all the credit should go to Mrs Gully for that.
‘It is an incredible thing to stay calm.
‘I’ve had calls of this nature before and Mrs Gully was by far the calmest I have worked with.
‘I thought she had done CPR before.’
After being in an induced coma for less than 24 hours, Mr Gully was transferred to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and was given surgery to have a third stent – a kind of medical tube – put into his heart.
Mr Gully, who is treasurer of St Clement’s Sports Club, says he is grateful that the incident happened while he was in the Island and to still be here, thanks to his wife’s life-saving compressions.
Now, Capita Asset Services Jersey, who Mrs Gully works for, have offered all staff at the company the opportunity to take part in CPR training – and Mrs Gully was the first to sign up.
The couple celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary yesterday and are both ‘taking each day as it comes’.
- Check the victim for unresponsiveness. If the person is not responsive and not breathing or not breathing normally call 999 and return to the victim. The emergency services can assist you with CPR instructions.
- If the victim is still not breathing normally, coughing or moving, begin chest compressions. Push down in the centre of the chest two inches 30 times. Pump hard and fast at the rate of at least 100/minute, faster than once per second.
- Tilt the head back and lift the chin. Pinch the nose and cover the mouth with yours and blow until you see the chest rise. Give two breaths. Each breath should take one second.
- Continue with 30 pumps and two breaths until help arrives.
- This ratio is the same for one-person and two-person CPR. In two-person CPR the person pumping the chest stops while the other gives mouth-to-mouth breathing.
