Lifeboat crew help save colleague's life (From Western Telegraph)

Angle lifeboat crew help save colleague's life

12:00pm Saturday 16th February 2013 in News

Angle RNLI volunteer Julian Hammond is safely home from hospital after his fellow crew members helped saved his life.

Julian, the deputy launch authority at Angle RNLI, suffered a heart attack at his local, the Hibernia Inn.

The incident happened before Christmas, but with Julian now well on the way to recovery the story has come to light.

Julian had joined friends, family and fellow lifeboat volunteers as the community came together to pull the annual Christmas draw.

However, celebrations soon came to a halt when Julian suddenly collapsed from a heart attack while happily greeting his friends.

The RNLI lifeboat crew leapt from their seats and immediately started performing CPR, unable to find any kind of pulse or heartbeat.

A crew member rushed to the lifeboat station to fetch oxygen, and the crew performed continuous CPR for over 20 minutes until the ambulance arrived.

Thankfully, after weeks of treatments at both Withybush and Morriston Hospital, Julian returned home on January 19th.

Julian began volunteering with Angle RNLI 25 years ago. He has since played a key role within the lifeboat station and taken part in numerous first aid training exercises over the years. But he never imagined that the vital training would one day save his life.

“After years of first aid training on the Dead Fred CPR dummy in RNLI training exercises, I never imagined that one day the crew at Angle would be using those skills on me. I’m living proof that the training works,”

said Julian.

“I can’t thank the lifeboat crew enough for acting so quickly and saving my life.”

Julian is now on the road to recovery and looking forward to celebrating a second Christmas with friends and family in March – to make up for the one he missed.