A holiday maker who suffered a cardiac arrest at East Midlands Airport has been reunited with the team of heroes who saved his life.
Francis Dempsey, 82, from Derby, was jetting off to Ireland with his family to attend his nephew’s wedding, when he went into cardiac arrest at the airport.
Fellow passengers quickly came to his aid, followed by airport personnel.
Alex Booth, a member of the airport security team and a duty first aider was one of the first people to get to Francis. He immediately assessed the situation and started CPR. The airport also had a defibrillator which was used by the airport staff to shock Francis’ heart.
Alex said: "It’s great to hear that Mr Dempsey had made a good recovery. As one of the airport’s first aid responders, we are trained to deal with and control situations where vital first aid such as CPR is required. It was truly a team effort."
Statistics show that when a person goes into cardiac arrest, if a defibrillator is used and effective CPR is performed within 3-5 minutes of cardiac arrest, survival chances increase from 6% to 74%.
A 999 call was made to our control room and Paramedic Graham Ballard was first on scene followed by Dr Matt Woods, from the East Midlands Intermediate Care Scheme and ambulance crew Malcolm Storey and John Filby.
Thanks to the life-saving action of his fellow passengers, the airport team, and the emergency services colleagues who managed to resuscitate Francis, he is now on the road to recovery. Francis and his family were reunited with the heroes who saved his life on Friday 27 October 2017.
Francis is not able to remember much of what happened that day, but says that he owes his life to all those that who helped him.
His son Gary, who witnessed everything, said: “It was incredibly humbling to see everyone trying to help my father. I just want to say thank you to all the staff at the airport and the emergency services. My father would not be here today without all of their assistance."