First Aid Corps

Three security guards have been hailed as heroes after saving the life of a pensioner who lay dying in the town centre.

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The trio from Middleton Shopping Centre raced to the aid of 75-year-old Vera Roach who had collapsed close to Burton Street after suffering a cardiac arrest.

As well as administering CPR, the quick-thinking threesome of Leigh Garratt, John Hayes and Paul Robinson used a defibrillator kept in the shopping centre while an ambulance raced to the scene.

John Heyes, Paul Robinson & Leigh Garatt the Saviours

Mrs Roach’s daughter Jacqueline, said the men’s actions had saved her mum’s live.

“The doctors told me that if it wasn’t for the actions of the guards my mum wouldn’t have made it. I cannot thank them enough.”

Mrs Roach is expected to arrive home today (Thursday) after spending a fortnight being treated at North Manchester General Hospital.

She collapsed on June 30 close to the lights at the end of Burton Street after leaving her home to head into Middleton town centre for some shopping.

But as she prepared to cross Factory Street she suffered a heart attack and fell to the ground.

A few minutes later, security manager Leigh Garratt from Reliance, who manage Middleton Shopping Centre’s, spotted Mrs Roach on the ground.

“I was just heading out on my lunch when I spotted a crowd gathered around this lady,” he said. “I went over and started performing CPR and asked my colleagues to bring over the defibrillation machine from the shopping centre.”

Leigh’s colleagues, John and Paul, arrived with the machine as the trio continued to attempt to restart Mrs Roach’s heart while they waited for an ambulance to arrive.

Once paramedics arrived, they continued to assistant the medical crews as they prepared to transfer her to hospital.

“There is a golden few minutes when someone’s heart stops,” Leigh added. “I have since found out that Mrs Roach had been there for over 10 minutes before we arrived, but we are trained to do this and were glad to help out.”

As well as working as security guards in Middleton Shopping Centre, Leigh and his colleagues are all trained in basic life support as well as how to use a defibrillation machine.

David McNally, community resuscitation manager for NW ambulance, who trained the guards, said: “If these machines are used within four minutes of someone collapsing the chances of people surviving goes up quite dramatically and this is what happened here.

“It is testament to their skill and the programme we do that someone’s life has been saved.”

Since the incident, Mrs Roach has been fitted with a pacemaker and has made a speedy recovery.

Her daughter Jacqueline said she was expected to return to her home in Parkfield today (Thursday).

“I cannot thank the guards enough for what they have done,” she said. “Together with the ambulance and doctors they have saved my mum’s live.”

Laura Geraghty was dead for 57 minutes last April after going into cardiac arrest.

“Once that blood clot hit, it hit hard. I just floated on, and it was white and beautiful. I was dead,” she recalled.

Geraghty was resuscitated by 11 people, who used CPR and a defibrillator.

After her heart attack, Geraghty became CPR certified and got a device that walks one through the process of administering the life-saving technique.

Just months later, Geraghty was in a North Attleborough Wal-Mart when she saw a stranger collapse.

She saw “people running, and people screaming, ‘Call 911,’” and went over to check things out.

“I just immediately dropped to my knees over his body,” she said.

She used the pocket CPR device and brought him back to life by the time emergency crews arrived.

“I got a faint pulse, so immediately you stop. Then, I looked at his stomach, and it started going up and down, and I was like, ‘Yes!’” said Geraghty.

“I think he was having a heart attack, due to the fact that his wife said he was complaining about a lot of chest pain before he went down,” Geraghty said.

“It’s a scary ordeal. I’ve never come into contact with something like this,” she said.

Now, Geraghty wonders how he’s doing – even though she still doesn’t know his name.

Judy Mims still doesn’t recall what happened on Nov. 16, 2008, but she was on her way to Sunday school where she teaches at First Baptist Church on Mills Avenue.

Judy Mims the Survivor

Brown and her twin sister, Shirley Hackett, think that Mims stopped at Target on Kettleman Lane to get some cold medicine because she wasn’t feeling well.

She was in the restroom when she collapsed, Brown said. A customer, also in the restroom, heard a crashing noise, left the restroom and told an employee, who called 9-1-1.

AMR paramedics revived Mims with a defibrillator before taking her to Lodi Memorial Hospital. Doctors thought she wouldn’t make it through the night. Before the night was over, she was transferred to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Stockton.

“I have no memory at all of what happened,” Mims said. “I don’t know why I went to Target.”

“I realized I was at St. Joseph’s, but I didn’t realize the magnitude of how serious it was,” Mims said.

It was a long stage of rehabilitation, with both of Mims’ sisters staying with her for seven months.

One recent exciting day for Mims was July 28, when she returned to her classroom, where she teaches a fifth-grade Gifted and Talented Education class.

Mims said she has a class of good students who don’t cause her much stress, but she makes an extra effort to not subject herself to stress.

Off the clock and nearly out the door of the Fishers Wal-Mart, Sgt. Darrin Emmons couldn’t ignore yelling in the produce isle.

I ran over and saw that there was a gentleman on the ground and he appeared unconscious and he was turning blue,” said Sgt. Darrin Emmons.

Two women started CPR. Sgt. Emmons bolted to his car. Like all Fishers police officers, he is equipped with an Automatic External Defibrillator.

“It did a read out on him and advised to shock, and it delivered a shock to the guy and it appeared that he started breathing,” said Sgt. Emmons.

Wendell Hunsucker the Survivor

Within seconds, shock waves jolted 80-year-old Wendell Hunsucker.

Now recovering after a week in the hospital, Hunsucker has heard all about his revival.

“I don’t remember anything,” said Hunsucker.

“It shows you have guardian angels. That’s what I would say. I had somebody looking after me,” he said.

“If it hadn’t been for Sgt. Emmons, “I wouldn’t be talking to you. That’s for sure.”

Hunsucker also gives the women who performed CPR on him a lot of credit. One of them an occupational therapist who lives in Fishers. But mainly he hopes this will prompt stores and businesses to keep a portable AED on site for emergencies.

“I will never be able to thank the people that helped me out,” he said. “Everything went my way. I been trying to win that damn lottery for 25 years. I guess I finally won it. I got my life back.”

A 38-YEAR-OLD man whose heart stopped is alive and in hospital, thanks to a built-in defibrillator in the Madrid shopping centre he was visiting.

A security guard in La Vaguada mall in the city’s Pilar district says he was automatically alerted when the man attempted to use the machine.

He then rushed to his aid and applied the defibrillator, which sends electric shocks through the heart to re-start it.

Public buildings all over Spain began to install defibrillators at the end of 2007 after the sudden death of Sevilla footballer Antonio Puerta from a cardiac arrest.