A U.K. CPR instructor was saved by one of his students after having a heart attack while teaching the class at his church.
David Knowles, a former nurse and St. John Ambulance volunteer, was able to let his students know that he was having a serious health problem and instructed them to call his wife and take out his false teeth before he passed out, Inside Edition reported.
The 77-year-old said he had to make the class understand that he wasn’t putting on an act for them as part of the instruction, IE reported. Karol Chew, a parishioner of the church and a former nurse, was taking the course as a refresher and performed CPR on Knowles after he passed out.
Knowles had to be put into a medically induced coma because of the extent of damage to his heart.
“I woke up two and a half weeks later,” he told Inside Edition. “It was quite severe. I was more dead than alive when they got me into hospital.”
While in the hospital, Knowles suffered cardiac arrest again and also had a pulmonary embolism, according to Devon Live. He now has three stents and an internal defibrillator.
It has been four months since the heart attack, and Knowles continues to improve.
“I feel a lot better,” he told Inside Edition, adding that it was “bizarre” that he might not be alive today without his student performing CPR.
St. John Ambulance is celebrating its 140th anniversary this year.
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