Heart scare survivor backs CPR campaign
A PROBATION officer who collapsed in a gym and was brought back from the dead thanks to CPR is backing a campaign to raise awareness of the life-saving technique.
Lee Hoyles, 48, was working out in the Glamorgan Health and Racquet Club when he was suddenly taken gravely ill.
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Lee Hoyles with Welsh Ambulance Service public access defibrillator officer Gerard Rothwell in the Quadrant Swansea
But thanks to the quick thinking — and skills of staff — his life was saved.
Now the Penllergaer man is backing a drive to get more people trained.
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Mr Hoyles said before his collapse he had no idea he had an electrical fault in his heart, similar to the problem that afflicted Bolton footballer Fabrice Muamba.
He said: "There is no doubt about it, I wouldn't be here today had it not been for the instructor at Glamorgan Health and Racquet Club who came to my aid.
"I was a regular at the gym and had already run about four miles on a running machine as part of my daily fitness work-out when it was as if the switch had been thrown and I just went down.
"I knew nothing until I woke up with people stood over me."
The man in the right place at the right time was gym inspector Huw Evans, from Neath.
Following Mr Hoyles's collapse, he began chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the stricken man, and then used a defib machine which was kept at the gym.
He said: "I know Lee quite well as he is a regular.
"I saw him lying by the side of a running machine with some other members around him. I could see he was clearly in trouble and called for the defib machine.
"The on-duty manager, Gemma Petty, brought me the machine by which time I had already done the necessary checks and begun chest compressions and mouth-to- mouth. I am trained to use the defib machine and to be honest it does most of the work for you."
Mr Evans continued to treat the man until paramedics arrived and took the patient to Morriston Hospital.
As part of the CPR awareness campaign, the Welsh Ambulance Service is holding a demonstration day at Swansea's Quadrant shopping centre on July 27.
jason.evans@swwedia.co.uk
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