Keith Grey, 41, was working out in his gym when he
suffered a cardiac arrest in October last year.
Luckily for primary schoolteacher Keith, the
staff at the Central YMCA Club, Bloomsbury, had been trained by the
London Ambulance Service in basic life support and how to use a
defibrillator.
The gym has a public-access defibrillator
which was partly funded by the British Heart Foundation.
Gym staff immediately recognised Keith’s
symptoms, called 999 for an ambulance and began basic life
support.
They shocked his heart with the defibrillator
and his heartbeat returned.
A motorcycle paramedic, ambulance crew and
single responder arrived soon afterwards and provided advanced life
support. Keith was taken to University College Hospital for further
treatment.
Keith was diagnosed with an irregular heart
rhythm and fitted with an internal cardioverter defibrillator. He
was back at work in the New Year.
Central YMCA Club Director Barry Cronin said:
“With an average of 1,000 people using Central YMCA Club every day,
we believe it is vital that our staff are fully trained and
confident in basic life support and in using
defibrillators.
“Thanks to the training we received from the London Ambulance
Service our staff have successfully managed to deal with two
incidents in which our Club members required urgent medical
attention, and in both cases they were critical in saving
lives.”
Pictured left to right: Declan Duncan,
Victoria Hollins (BBC reporter) Emama Pickard, Keith Grey and Danny
Potts.