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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."