A Stepping Hill Hospital A&E sister and her paramedic husband have been praised for helping save the life of a heart attack victim – not at hospital but in a department store car park.

Senior A&E sister Clare Carrie and her husband John Carrie, a senior paramedic for the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS), are no strangers to saving lives in their daily work, but were not expecting to be called on for help whilst out shopping at the Dunelm Mill store in Stockport.

Whilst leaving the store heading for their car John and Clare noticed an NWAS response car attending to an unwell older man in the car park.  When they asked the attending paramedic whether he needed any help, they were told at first the patient was recovering and the situation was in hand. However, just as they were reversing to leave, the patient went into a seizure and they were waved back again for assistance. As they rushed to help, it became clear the patient had gone into cardiac arrest.
The trio pulled him out of the car and administered CPR, followed by two shocks with a defibrillator when he was still not responding. As an ambulance arrived Clare phoned Stepping Hill Hospital ahead to have a resuscitation bed ready as the patient was rushed in for treatment. Once there staff helped him to stabilise, before being later transferred to Wythenshawe Hospital to complete his recovery.

John and Clare were commended by NWAS for their swift action which helped save the patient’s life, and also received a thank you letter from the man himself. “I cannot help thinking of you guys and how fortunate it was that our paths crossed as they did. I just wanted to say a huge thank you for what you did.”