Man suddenly collapsed but his friends knew exactly what to do

A man collapsed into a puddle as his friends realised what was wrong.

Ray Hughes, 78, met up with five of his friends at his Windes^[1] home on a rainy September morning last year. Ray, along with Mike Baker, Bernie Smith, Alf Hagar, Cliff Walker and Greg Wood, are all retired Merseyside Police^[2] officers and meet up regularly to go on walks together.

After eating some bacon sandwiches, they said goodbye to Ray’s wife, Ann, and set off on a route Ray had scouted out the day before. But during the walk, Ray began to feel something wasn’t right.

He told the ECHO: “We'd been walking about two miles or something like that. The next thing, I started to feel rather sluggish in my walking. I wasn't up to my usual pace. Eventually, it was just like turning a dimmer switch going out. I was just fading fast. And the guys in the group recognised that there was something wrong.

“We started from our house, where we'd have bacon butties and things like that. It was the start of a really good day. And the next thing I'm face down in a puddle. It was pouring with rain.”

His friends quickly realised Ray was in a bad way. What’s more, they weren’t sure where exactly they were, other than they were close to the M62.^[5] The rain obscured the visibility.

Greg, 69, from Little Sutton^[6], said: “It's a regular thing for us, three or four times a year. There were six of us, and we were planning on a walk that was going to last most of the day.

“We were on a footpath which runs parallel to the M62 motorway, and that's about as much as we knew about our exact location. Ray took ill, he'd started to feel unwell, but then he recovered. But we'd said, let's get off the footpath, and we'll go back, because obviously he's done something wrong and then, a couple of minutes after that, he just collapsed.”

Thankfully, Greg is a North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) volunteer, an enhanced Community First Responder (eCFR). He instantly recognised the signs of cardiac arrest and started cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) while the others tried to pinpoint their location and call 999.

While Greg has trained for situations like this, having your close friend fall ill added to the pressure. He said: “It’s a lot different when it's somebody you know. It brings it into a different perspective altogether because you feel that all eyes are on you, plus you're looking at a friend that you've known all that time, and you're trying your very best to make sure that they make it. It is more unnerving than normal.

“I've known [Ray] for over 30 years. And we've kept this group going as a walking group. We're regular walkers, we all go out together. You don't think this kind of thing is going to happen. It was pretty much the worst case scenario when it did.

“I started chest compressions straight away, because without that, your chances of survival drop tremendously in the first ten minutes. Some of our friends got onto the ambulance service, trying to locate exactly where we were, and get a paramedic dispatched. It ended up with a helicopter coming.

“And between us all, but particularly when the medical assistants arrived, thankfully we were able to get him back into a regular heart rhythm and get him to hospital as a matter of urgency.

Paula Rimmer, 56, from Warrington^[7], who works in rapid response for the NWAS, remembers the day well. She said: “I was working a 12pm-12am shift. Around about 1.50pm, I got the call that there was a cardiac arrest on a pathway adjacent to the motorway, the M62, just off Rainhill^[8] Stoops. When I arrived at the scene it was really heavily raining. I was met on the hard shoulder by one of Ray's friends who was waving me down.”

While Ray was in a serious condition, the efforts of Greg and his other friends were vital in keeping him alive. She said: “The friends were able to help me carry all my kit down the embankment, which was very wet and quite muddy, up and over a fence and to the pathway where Ray was.

“When I arrived there, Ray was receiving CPR from his friends, which was very good CPR, and friends were supporting him, telling him how much they loved him, and generally giving him good moral support.

“When I attached the defibrillator, Ray's heart was in a condition called ventricular fibrillation, the only way out of this condition is to receive a defibrillation shock. He got a defibrillation shock immediately. His heart bent into a normal rhythm but without an output so then I was able to carry on the CPR with a device I have called the Lucas device.”

After 13 minutes, Ray’s heart was beating enough to ensure he could be transported via helicopter to Broadgreen Hospital for further treatment. Paula added: “They describe it as a chain of survival. The friends were able to alert the emergency services straight away and did good early CPR. There was early defibrillation, which he got and good post resuscitation care. All of those pieces of the jigsaw from a whole team is what has led to his survival today, thankfully.”

Ray is now recovering. Today, the retiree along with Ann and his six friends visited Paula and other paramedics at the NWAS Cheshire and Merseyside HQ in Speke^[9], which was a special day for all involved.

Paula said: “It's just amazing. We don't even get to find out if people survive. We may find out that they survived a discharge by a letter from our chief executive, but we don't actually get to meet them and see the personal sides of things. We've got to meet Ray's family, which is a brilliant opportunity, and realise what a difference it made. It's a privilege to be part of it, and it's really lovely.”

Ray is incredibly grateful that his friends were there for him in his hour of need. He said: “Since then, I've had them back at our house to tell their individual tales. Each of them told me what they did. They all took part in it, and they all saved my life.”

On the paramedics, Ray said: “They inspire you, you know. I always think when I'm there trying to get recovery, trying to get walking again, trying to do weights or whatever it is to get fit - I always remember them.”

References

1. ^{^} Windes (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)
2. ^{^} Merseyside Police (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)
3. ^{^} Elderly woman 'very upset' after incident in Morrisons (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)
4. ^{^} Try the Liverpool Echo Premium app and get the first month free (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)
5. ^{^} M62. (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)
6. ^{^} Little Sutton (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)
7. ^{^} Warrington (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)
8. ^{^} Rainhill (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)
9. ^{^} Speke (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)