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

The three firefighters were on a beach in Cornwall when a man collapsed in shallow water.
The three firefighters were on a beach in Cornwall when a man collapsed in shallow water. The three firefighters were on a beach in Cornwall when a man collapsed in shallow water.

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.

Shaun Bishop
Shaun Bishop Shaun Bishop visited the man in hospital a couple of days after the incident (London Fire Brigade)

Paramedics then took over before the man, who was in his late 50s, was taken by air ambulance to Truro Hospital, where Mr Bishop visited him a couple of days later.

“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.”