Lifesaver urges Islanders to learn CPR

Thursday 27 November 2014

A local lawyer is urging everyone to learn how to help save someone's life after having to use her first aid skills to do exactly that.

53-year-old Kevin Brammer was delivering water to the offices where Carol-Ann Le Boutillier works in St Peter when he had a heart attack and stopped breathing a few weeks ago.

Having completed the St John Ambulance workplace training course Carol-Ann rushed to his aid and started trying to resuscitate him.

She said: "He was lying face down, he didn't respond, he wasn't responding to pain and I couldn't feel a pulse. I started CPR and he started to breathe. I moved him into the recovery position and then he stopped breathing again."

Someone in the office had called an ambulance and with the help of control room operator Steve Keywood, who was counting compressions, Carol-Ann was able to get his heart pumping again during the crucial minutes before the paramedics turned up to take over and take him to hospital.

Carol-Ann said: "I was dead calm at this point. My colleague was quite shocked as she had found Kevin so I helped look after her afterwards. I was just on autopilot. It started to hit home a few days later. People were saying 'You're a hero, you've done really well' but I don't feel like a hero."

Kevin was later transferred to Oxford for surgery but is now back home and this week met up with both Carol-Ann and the Ambulance staff who saved his life.

Carol-Ann said: "I was really nervous, the last time I saw him he was so unwell. It was so good to see him so healthy, it was lovely, He was really thankful, he couldn't thank me enough. 

"Everyone should do the work placement approved persons CPR course. I update that every two years so I know what to do, it's just practise, practising the skills and protecting the people around you."

Although he is taking it easy at the moment and is still off work, Kevin is expected to make a full recovery.

Kevin is now well on his way towards making a full recovery.