Father-of-two meets paramedics at tearful reunion following heart attack

A father-of-two has thanked the ambulance crews who saved his life when he had a heart attack in his car.

Alan Pascoe, 46, was taking his 11-year-old son Henry home from a competition at Harrow Climbing Centre.

Alan was about to drive them home when he started to feel unwell. Henry went into the centre to get help and called 999. London Ambulance Service clinicians turned up in a matter of minutes.

The crew saw that Alan was about to go into cardiac arrest. They needed to quickly start chest compressions in order to keep blood moving round his body as his heart stopped beating.

Friends looked after Henry so he didn’t have to watch the paramedics do chest compressions on his dad.

Alan, who lives near Tunbridge Wells in Kent but is originally from Wales, visited the paramedics at Brent Ambulance Station with his family to say thank you. He said: “It was amazing and a bit overwhelming meeting the crews who helped save me. But I just wanted a chance to thank them for saving my life.

“My heart attack is a still a little bit raw for us but meeting the paramedics was really special.”

The ambulance clinicians treated Alan on scene for an hour before taking him to a specialist heart attack centre at Harefield Hospital in Hillingdon.

Surgeons at the hospital removed the blood clot and fitted a stent – a small mesh inserted to hold open narrowed blood vessels. He still receives blood thinners and immunotherapy injections.

He was diagnosed a few months later with Essential Thrombocythaemia – a rare form of blood cancer where bone marrow produces too many platelets and causes blood clots.

Emergency Medical Technician Patti Tucker, one of those who cared for Alan, said: “It was really emotional meeting Alan and I had tears in my eyes.

“I couldn’t get him out of my head. I would be thinking about whether he had survived and then we got a letter from him which had me sobbing happy tears. They’re such a lovely family.”

Incident Response Officer Andrew Willicombe, who was also there that evening, added: “It was a really nice experience meeting Alan and it is good to see that the family have their dad back.

“I’ve never met one of my patients who survived a cardiac arrest so it was a really nice moment.”

Paramedic Josh Pereira urged Londoners to learn the skills that saved Alan’s life: “Everyone should learn how to do CPR and use a defibrillator. These skills are so simple to do and can save someone’s life.”

London Ambulance Charity’s Heart Starters campaign aims to put 200 defibrillators into areas of the capital that need them most.

Help us raise money for our Heart Starters campaign on our dedicated London Ambulance Charity website here or join us for the next London Life Hike in September to raise money for this vital cause.