Heroes who helped save a man's life after he suffered a heart attack outside the family home have been praised.

Peter Ewart, 68, was working on his motorhome in Queensland Road, Westham, Weymouth on Friday afternoon when he suddenly collapsed.

Neighbour Sue Newman – who has been self-isolating due to asthma problems – rushed over to help, as did a second unidentified woman who was passing.

They performed CPR in the driveway before the arrival of paramedics who worked on him for an hour.

Mr Ewart was later airlifted to hospital by the air ambulance which landed at the nearby Marsh, below.

Dorset Echo:

Police and air ambulance staff at the Marsh on Friday  Picture: WEYMOUTH & PORTLAND POLICE

 

Mr Ewart's wife Pam said: “I was trying to support him, and I just started screaming for my daughter. We phoned an ambulance and the lady across the road (Sue Newman) was at her gate and heard my daughter shouting ‘is he breathing’. She did a CPR course last year and shot across the road and came in."

Mr Ewart was in a confined space in the campervan, but his step-daughter Colleen, and neighbour Sue managed to pull him into a wider area where Sue started CPR.

Mrs Ewart added: “Because (Sue) has very bad asthma, she was getting to the point she couldn’t breathe and a lady who was walking down the road, asked if we wanted any help and she took over CPR. Sue took over again and she left. We couldn’t thank her, we had no idea who she was, just a perfect stranger walking past.”

Sue was in her garden when her son alerted her to the situation.

She said: “I didn’t even think about the virus, I just went. I don’t feel like I did much.

“The emergency services were absolutely brilliant, it was so difficult doing what I did do in the little space, but I didn’t think, I just did it.

“I am glad it all worked out well. It’s not really sunk in yet, it’s slowly dawning on me that I saved his life, but it feels like something anyone else would have done, I was just the first one there. It doesn’t feel like I have done anything special."

She added: “I only got trained up last year. I never expected to use it.

“I did have an asthma attack while doing it and another woman stepped in and took over while I sorted myself out. Once the paramedics arrived and I went outside, she had vanished.”

Mr and Mrs Ewart spend most of their time on the continent, but it is only due to the coronavirus that they were ‘luckily’ back in England.

Mrs Ewart said: “My husband had a severe heart attack and his heart stopped. If it wasn’t for these two ladies, my husband would not be alive now. Thank you is not enough. I just want them to understand that without them, my husband would not be alive today. They did an absolutely wonderful thing."

Mrs Ewart has been able to talk to her husband who is at Dorset County Hospital waiting for an operation, after which he will be able to return home.

Weymouth & Portland Police posted about the incident.

They said how the air ambulance was scrambled and police and paramedics on the ground assisted with the incident in the Westham area on Friday afternoon.

A spokesman for Weymouth and Portland Police said: "Members of Yellow Squad were called to assist the NHS and Air Ambulance due a male suffering from a medical emergency in the Westham area.

"The male has been taken to DCH for further medical assistance."

Mrs Ewart said: “When the paramedics got here, it took them an hour to resuscitate and stabilise him and put him in the ambulance."

She added: "I would like to thank the ambulance crew and the air ambulance that lifted a doctor in and the police that came to keep the street clear so the (medical staff) could have privacy. It was a joint effort - they were absolutely fabulous, all of them.”