Village medical team saves life of
heart attack postie, aged 41
by
Gina Stainer
chief reporter
West Sussex County Times
Friday, November 26 2004
A POSTMAN is recovering in hospital
this week after the life‑saving actions of the Henfield Area
Response Team. Neil Hoad, aged 41. suffered heart failure late one
night at his home in Nyes Close.
HART co‑ordinator Dave Fletcher was on
the scene within four minutes giving vital emergency treatment until
the ambulance arrived. Mr Hoad's wife Tina recalled: “It was
about 11:30pm and I had gone to bed. I was dozing and I noticed my
husband's breathing changed and, he was gasping for breath. He
seemed to have gone unconscious.”“I phoned for an ambulance and a
neighbour came across to help and did CPR. In four minutes Dave
Fletcher arrived and took over.
He was brilliant and if he hadn’t arrived when he did my husband
would not have been alive.“The ambulance didn't arrive for 17
minutes.”Mrs Hoad said neither she nor her husband had had any
warning that his heart would fail.“He's a postman and is very fit,"
she said.“The tests showed he didn't have high cholesterol, he
didn't have heart attack because of his lifestyle, he just suffered
cardiac arrest. It was shocking.”Mr Hoad has been recovering in
Worthing hospital for three weeks since the incident at the
beginning of November and was due to transfer to a London hospital
yesterday to have a defibrillator fitted.
His wife, said: "I'd heard of HART but 1 didn't really know what
they were or appreciate what they did.“My husband's been a fit and
healthy man and there was no obvious reason for this to happen to
him.“I will do anything I can to support HART and 1 hope this helps
to highlight to people in Henfield just how valuable it is."
HART is a group of trained volunteers who live in the village and
provide support to the ambulance service, which informs the group
whenever it receives a 999 emergency call in the area.
They carry, life‑saving equipment including defibrillators and can
reach patients in minutes to start emergency treatment including
cardio‑pulmonary resuscitation. Mr Fletcher, who also works as
a paramedic for Sussex Ambulance Service, said: "It's heart warming
when we have a success story like this and it shows how well the
system works when everything falls into place. The neighbours did a
brilliant job starting CPR before I arrived and the despatch team at
Lewes called me when the ambulance was called, even though I'd just
gone off duty seven minutes before and had just got into bed. That
shows their dedication to this.
Saved life of
Postman
From front
"The ambulance arrived after about 20 minutes, which is what happens
in outlying communities. That's why we have this system in place to
offer an emergency response quickly.”Mr Fletcher said HART could not
currently offer 24 hour cover, but once the new recruits were
trained in the new year he hoped it would be able to correct that.
"This is an example of everything working perfectly, but there was
an element of luck involved," he said. "We, try to offer cover
at some time every day, but it is extremely fortunate that this
happened when it did and I was able to respond. "Without
immediate treatment Mr Hoad would not have survived."
HART is a voluntary group and relies on community support.
Mr Fletcher said: "It's all about saving lives. It's about
cooperation with the ambulance service to achieve that.
"Resuscitation in the community is a community problem."
Coordinator of the community responders for Sussex Ambulance Roy
Nightingale added: "This case shows the vital use of" the
community responders. They can be there quickly and this proves it
all works to a successful outcome.
“I work very closely with Dave and the
Henfield scheme has worked very well and has fantastic support from
the community. Henfield is a challenging area for us to get to in a
reasonable amount of time and the responders are there to fill that
gap."
