My friends saved my life - cardiac arrest survivor
A Jerseyman is encouraging people to learn first aid after his friend used skills he learned at a course to help save his life.
Kevin Clyde Smith was on a cycling trip in France with four friends when he collapsed in June last year.
His friend used CPR to keep oxygen going around his body before the 72-year-old was rushed to hospital for lifesaving heart surgery.
Voluntary agencies including Normandy Rescue, the St John Ambulance Service and the community first responders provide free training at open days in Jersey.
'Crucial first minutes'
Mr Smith said he originally thought he was suffering from severe acid reflux.
He said: "We stopped at a cafe, had a glass of milk... took my bike round to the back of the cafe, and my legs went out - [I] fell to the ground totally unconscious.
"I remember thinking: 'This is really bad, I hadn't had acid reflux this severely before.'"
Mr Smith said one of his friends had just done a CPR course, one was a doctor, one could speak fluent French, and one had lost his son to a heart attack a few years ago.
"We were all connected with this event - they immediately started work on me and realised what had happened," he said.
The collaborative effort extended to a cafe worker, who called an ambulance and then ran down to the beach to alert lifeguards.
"It was the only morning they were on duty... [and] had a defibrillator, so, within five minutes of me collapsing, the lifeguards were there," he said.
He added that the French hospital he was taken to was a specialist cardiology hospital for the whole of western France.
Mr Smith said he felt very lucky to have such good friends around him at the time.
He said: "My friends saved my life, they kept my oxygen circulating my body through the blood for those crucial first four minutes until the lifeguards arrived.
"The CPR was vital in keeping my brain oxygenised until the CPR activated my heart for long enough for them to operate.
"I cannot get over how fortunate I was to be with the friends I was with, to be in St Malo, to be by the lifeguard and to be near this hospital."
Mr Smith said he and his friends were going to mark the one year anniversary of his cardiac arrest with a redo of their original cycling trip.
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