A Horley man who had to be shocked eight times with a defibrillator when he suffered a cardiac arrest has been reunited with some of his life-saving team.
Ray Shore, 65, and his wife Dee met with South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) staff to thank them for their efforts on the morning of his collapse on February 10.
Mr Shore, a grandfather of ten, was keen to pay gratitude to the team that had brought him back from the brink.
He said: “Quite simply, without them I wouldn’t be here today. They should all be very proud of themselves. It’s a huge thank you from us. They did an outstanding job and it’s been brilliant to meet everyone.”
On the day of his collapse Mr Shore said he had been feeling completely normal and had no warning of what was about to happen to him.
He said: “I hadn’t got a clue. The lights just go out – there’s no warning, pain or discomfort. It was interesting, but at the time, but I was completely f****d.
“I was talking to my wife and joking with her and I literally just dropped to the floor as I was walking past my bed.
“You don’t feel it at all, it’s literally someone just turns the lights out. My wife checked me, she’s an ex nurse and she couldn’t find a pulse either.
(Image: SECAmb)
“I think we had more ambulances outside the house than they had outside East Surrey Hospital. They were here in under four minutes and it was just remarkable.
“Most people in my position don’t survive, or they have hypoxia, but I’ve survived and it’s thanks to them”
Mrs Shore called 999 and followed the instructions of medical advisor Charlotte Rance before paramedic Lauren Cox and her team arrived.
Ms Cox, 24, and her crew ran upstairs, immediately started CPR on Mr Shore and delivered the first shocks to attempt to keep him alive while backup rushed to the scene.
Ms Cox said: “The reason we shocked him eight times is that we’d get a normal heart rhythm and we’d shock him and he’d then arrest again.”
Undaunted the team persevered with CPR as they continued to shock Ray as he lay fighting for his life.
Ms Shore added: “It’s just a little more challenging but we knew he was a fighter; we knew that there was a high chance of a good outcome because we got there in such good time and his heart was responding well and he was fighting the whole way.”
“Saving a life is very rewarding, especially in this circumstance that ended so well and the fact that he is so fighting fit now. It’s what we train for at the end of the day.
“It is just a part of the job really. I have some very proud parents and grandparents after seeing it online but it’s one of the nicer parts of the job.
(Image: SECAmb)
“A lot of the stuff we do isn’t so pleasant and happy but this one had a good ending.”
Ms Cox was joined that day by colleagues Paul Harris and Nigel Martin shortly before Critical Care Paramedic Richard Brandon arrived at the scene.
Mr Shore was then taken to East Surrey Hospital in Redhill before being transferred to St George’s Hospital in Tooting where he underwent surgery.
Mr and Mrs Shore travelled to SECAmb’s Crawley Make Ready Centre to meet the team that saved his life.
Mr Shore said: “I’m eternally grateful to them, they’re an outstanding team and it was an absolute pleasure to meet them. I’m still alive because of them.
“It was astonishing to meet them, they’re very lovely people. To a certain extent they’re doing their job but on the other hand they’re dedicated, hard-working and caring people.
“They were here for nearly two hours and they absolutely stuck at it. They didn’t give up and they could have done because I was in a bad way.
“It’s taken a while to recover but I’m doing alright. I felt like I was hit by a train when I was recovering – they’d cracked a few ribs doing CPR. I decided not to sue them, so I feel like I’m being very gracious.
“I spoke to the doctor afterwards and he said in any other country in the world I just wouldn’t have survived. I thought, they really do deserve us to go and give these guys a drink. I’m far from wealthy but the card and prosecco and meeting them was just something I could do to say thanks.”