Heart attack victim 'dead for an hour' thanks air ambulance medic who saved him - with video
A man who was "dead" in a coma for almost an hour after suffering a cardiac arrest has visited the doctors who saved him to say thank you.
Prompt life-saving action from colleagues kept Trevor Fletcher alive until the air ambulance team arrived from Welshpool.
Mr Fletcher, 60, fell unconscious at work in Deeside's Toyota Manufacturing UK.
Dr John Glen, an anaesthetist on board, said teamwork at all stages had helped to save Mr Fletcher.
He said: "The patient was given first aid and CPR by a colleague, a defibrillator was on hand, paramedics arrived to give more intensive resuscitation and insert a tube to help him breathe.
"The helicopter was able to reach him quickly and had an expert on board, and finally he was flown directly a specialist cardiac centre.
"Without all these stages, he probably won't have made it - if he had, he would be in a bad way, and certainly not up and about in a few weeks, cracking jokes."
Once Mr Fletcher was stabilised, he was flown to the North Wales Cardiac Centre at Glan Clwyd where he was treated at a specialist laboratory, and then transferred to Arrowe Park Hospital in the Wirral to be closer to his family.
Once he recovered, Mr Fletcher, who lives in Birkenhead, travelled to Welshpool where the air ambulance is based, to meet Dr Glen and the team to say thank you.
His work-mates in the Unite union branch at Deeside donated £250 to the Wales Air Ambulance charity.
Mr Fletcher said: "I was amazed when I discovered that I had been flown to hospital after I was taken ill at work. Really, the first I knew was waking up in Arrowe Park hospital. I don't remember being on the helicopter nor in Glan Clwyd, because they kept me unconscious while I was being treated.
"It's thanks to the doctors on the helicopter, and all the medical staff in the two hospitals, that I am alive now and I am able to go back to work, plus spend time with my family.
"I am now determined to get to fitness as there's still so much I want to do. I am back at work part-time, and I know I will have to take it in stages.
"I simply can't thank everybody so much for saving me."
Dr Glen added: "This is a real example of how everybody working together has saved a life - from the workmate giving first aid and mouth to mouth resuscitation as soon as Trevor was found, through to being flown quickly to the right hospital through to the specialist intensive care he received on the ward.
"Once the flying medics were alerted, it took us 15 minutes from our base in Welshpool to fly to Deeside. There we found Trevor was unconscious and being treated by paramedics, who were working hard to keep him breathing.
"Really, it is fair to say that he had been dead for almost an hour when we started to work on him, although the CPR meant that blood was still moving around his body and so keeping his brain going.
"My main job as an anaesthetist means I am an expert in putting in the tubes needed to ensure he could breathe. When a patient does come round after an event like this, they often need a general anaesthetic and we have the means to deliver that at the roadside.
"Once he was stable we flew him to North Wales Cardiac Centre at Glan Clwyd - it wasn't the closest hospital but it was the one with the equipment needed to save him, the Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) lab.
"I also work on the intensive care unit at Glan Clwyd and so I actually ended up also treating Trevor in hospital.
"It's great to see him up and about and looking so well - that's why I do this job."
