Off-duty firefighters save man who suffered cardiac arrest on beach

Three off-duty firefighters, including a husband and wife, came to the rescue when a man suffered a cardiac arrest on a beach.

Kel and Laura Watson-Finch, from Hainault and Romford fire stations respectively, were on holiday in Cornwall when they saw a man collapse as he pulled a boat back to Pentewan beach and rushed to help him.

“We checked for a pulse and tried talking to him but we had no response,” Mr Watson-Finch told the London Fire Brigade website.

“We then lifted him away from the water onto a slipway with another bystander where we tried again to get a response.”

The pair took it in turns to do CPR, along with another firefighter who happened to be on holiday in the area, Shaun Bishop from Kingston Fire Station.

“As I approached the bed, I saw his wife first and she gave me a massive hug and was crying,” Mr Bishop said.

“I shook his hand and he was crying and saying that he couldn’t thank me enough. I felt emotional as well. When I got to him, he was basically dead and to see him three or four days later it was an incredible feeling.”

The man is now facing a triple heart bypass operation.

Mr Watson-Finch said: “It was just an immediate reaction to help. We acted purely by instinct with what we saw. The gentleman coming round and showing signs of life showed a positive outcome which is all we could hope for.”