Wallace Rameka, 52, was one of eight Mexicans with sombreros, drawn-on moustaches and bright shirts. They were part of a stag do and had prime seats on the halfway line.
Laura Kwan the Saviour & Wallace Rameka
On Saturday, his partner dropped him off at the railway station entrance and he made his way to meet his mates about 2.30pm.
Mr Rameka was walking up the ramp on his way to Westpac Stadium when he had a heart attack.
Dr Laura Kwan, 27, a senior house officer in anaesthesia at Wellington Hospital and dressed as Nemo, was racing in to see her home country, England, play Canada in the quarterfinal when she saw Mr Rameka lying on the ground ahead.
“I had this sinking feeling this wasn’t just someone fallen over drunk.”
She ran over, found he had stopped breathing and began CPR.
“I still had the side fins blowing in the wind, and I was trying to shove them out of the way when I was doing chest compressions,” she said, adding she took off the head, tail and back fin of her costume.
Another doctor and nurse went to help and stadium staff brought the first aid equipment with a defibrillator.
It took two electric shocks before Mr Rameka’s heart started beating again. He was taken by ambulance to hospital.
On Monday morning she went in early to meet Mr Rameka and said it was great to see him recovering well.
“She’s an angel, man,” Mr Rameka said yesterday from Wellington Hospital.
“People say you were in the right place at the right time, but it wasn’t me in the right place, it was the doctor here.
“I’m just the sidekick in this story.”
He said: “That was cool as, eh, I can’t describe it … I said, thanks – what else is there to say. Now I get to spend a lot more time with my grandchildren.”
