Paramedics save heart attack victim, 21

WELLINGTON FREE AMBULANCE

LUCKY TIMING: Josh Ilton celebrates his 21st birthday in hospital with paramedics Caroline Marshall and Allan Bealing, who saved his life after a near fatal heart attack. The paramedics had stopped to pick up a burger when Mr Ilton collapsed nearby.

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A chance stop-off for a burger led two paramedics to save the life of a young heart attack victim.

Six days after suffering a severe cardiac arrest on a Wellington city street, Josh Ilton celebrated his 21st birthday in Wellington Hospital – surrounded by family, friends and the paramedics who saved his life.

Allan Bealing and Caroline Marshall, from Wellington Free Ambulance, were waiting in a queue at Burger King in Courtenay Place about 2am on August 1 when Mr Ilton, who was across the road, suddenly collapsed.

He had gone into town shortly after watching an All Blacks game with a friend.

Recognising something was seriously wrong when Mr Ilton collapsed, his friend put him in the recovery position and dialled 111. Onlookers rushed over the street to get the paramedics, who quickly identified the signs of cardiac arrest.

"Josh had agonal respirations, [irregular breathing], sounding a bit like loud gasping or snoring," Mr Bealing said.

Because of a large number of intoxicated bystanders, the paramedics transferred Mr Ilton to the back of an ambulance and began performing CPR and shocked him with a defibrillator to try to restart his heart.

A second Wellington Free Ambulance paramedic crew arrived to take him to Wellington Hospital, with Mr Bealing, Ms Marshall and a paramedic student continuing to perform CPR on the way. It was only 20 minutes from Mr Ilton's collapse to his arrival at the hospital's emergency department.

Tests have shown no reason for his heart attack but he is scheduled to have an operation today to implant a defibrillator near his heart. "I was really lucky the paramedics worked on me so hard and were in the right place at the right time," Mr Ilton said.

He hoped to do a course next year in car spray painting and was determined to live life to the fullest.

"I think I should live life a bit more. I was a bit lazy before but now I want to do bungy jumping and sky-diving – things I never wanted to do before.

"People take it for granted those things will always be there but I want to experience them in case it happens again."

His mother, Nelma Pearce, was very grateful the paramedics recognised immediately that her son had not just fallen over drunk.

"The fact they were just across the road when Josh collapsed was a massive stroke of luck."

Mr Bealing said that more often than not a patient did not survive this type of medical emergency.

"He primarily survived because CPR was started so soon after he collapsed and a defibrillator was nearby to deliver the shock that reverted the heart into its normal rhythm.

"Without these key factors he would have been unlikely to survive ..."

- © Fairfax NZ News