First Aid Corps

A 62-year-old woman is recovering in hospital after being found with no pulse outside Woolwich DLR station on Wednesday.

James Brown and Dan Piper the Saviours

Two police officers, PC James Brown and PCSO Dan Piper, were alerted to the woman, who had also stopped breathing, and began resuscitating her until London Ambulance staff took over.

Doctors and paramedics say the officers actions saved the woman’s life.

The woman is believed to have suffered a heart attack and is now recovering in hospital.

PC Brown, 37, a children’s entertainer before joining the Met 10 years ago, said: “In these situations the adrenaline just kicks in and you know that whatever you do next can make a huge difference to someone and their family. The training just kicks in.

“We were relieved when we felt a slight pulse after the CPR and we both knew we had done our best.”

He added: “This incident just makes the job worth it. If I retire in 20 years and I have done nothing else, I will always remember the day I tried my level best to give someone a chance to live.”

Former builder PCSO Piper said: “I cannot describe it how it feels when someone thanks you for saving them and when you feel you have made a difference for an entire family.”

The officers are both part of the Greenwich Transport Hub Team.

Greenwich’s borough commander Chief Superintendent Richard Wood said: “This is the Met at its finest. I am very proud. We wish the woman in question and her family all the very best for the future.”

Two Doncaster railway station staff have emerged as lifesaving heroes.

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John Webb and Carl Marsh-Smith sprung into action after seeing a 75-year-old passenger collapse on the platform next to Trafford Way.

They produced a defibrillator – a piece of equipment which uses an electrical current to restart a heart – to save his life.

John Webb & Carl Marsh-Smith the Saviours

Carl was first on the scene and called for assistance. He began giving the man first aid. John responded to the call and arrived with the defibrillator, which he attached and operated.

The man was with his six-year-old granddaughter at the time.

A spokesman of the station said they sprung quickly into action and, after a quick assessment showed the man was not breathing, John and Carl acted on the platform while other staff arranged quick access for the ambulance crew to get to the casualty.

Other staff at the station helped by looking after and comforting the distressed six-year-old girl.

The man has since made a full recovery.

Chris Seddon, of Burymead in Stevenage, is a duty manager on the Metropolitan line of the London Tube. He was working at Baker Street underground station when a woman, Jan Thompson, collapsed on a platform.

A trained first aider, Mr Seddon was called to the scene.

The 48-year-old said: “She had collapsed and gone blue and she was obviously dying. A doctor asked me to move out of the way. I told him I have a defibrillator and he said he didn’t know how to use it. I said ‘I do, I am trained.’ I shocked her twice and got her heart going again. If we hadn’t had the defibrillator she would have died.”

Paramedics arrived and Mr Seddon helped carry Ms Thompson up three levels on a stretcher.

Ms Thompson, who is retired, survived the cardiac arrest which happened in February this year. She was subsequently treated for a heart condition, and is grateful to be able to continue a fulfilling life.

Mr Seddon, who volunteered to be trained to use the automated external defibrillator (AED), said it is the first time he has had to use the lifesaving piece of equipment in an emergency.

“It was scary, but I was living on adrenaline for the rest of the day,” he said.

We will be reporting on lives saved around the world since our first documented life saved here in Singapore.

A 53-year-old North Andover man was sitting near Track 10 in the lobby area of the station at about 7 p.m. when he collapsed, according to a police report. He had suffered a cardiac arrest, said Transit Police Lieutenant Robert Lenehan.

Patricia Rogers and Alex Santos the Saviours

But thankfully Rogers is a nursing student and Santos is a medic in the Army. Also nearby was Candice Kruszkowski, a nurse from Children Hospital. The three raced to save the stranger.

“Somebody said he was going into a seizure and we moved him down to the ground and positioned him and he started turning blue, so we tried to open up an airway, check to see if he had a pulse,” Santos said.

“It happened so quickly, but it was so nice to have other people there with me, just to know there are people around that will help others,” nurse Patricia Rogers said.

“He was turning blue so he had no air going into him, so we just started CPR. You know it was cool because we had a team going. I started compressions she got the AED going,” Santos said.

Two transit police officers noticed the commotion. One ran to retrieve one of the newly installed automated external defibrillator devices, which deliver electrical shocks to revive victims of cardiac arrest. The good Samaritans continued CPR and used the defibrillator until an ambulance arrived, Lenehan said.

“It was a total team thing from the start all the way until EMS got there. And EMS did their thing and the transition was smooth,” Santos said.

“I kept seeing his wedding ring, so I knew somebody was out there. He has family and someone loves this man and was expecting him to come home,” Rogers said.

The man was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital where he was listed in good condition on Thursday.