A man was brought back to life twice after collapsing in front of his wife and two daughters at a dog training class on the outskirts of Dundee.
Dog trainer Margaret Thomson helped saved the man’s life by performing cardio pulmonary resuscitation but she shrugged off her heroics, stating that she just did what anyone would do.
The drama unfolded on Monday night when the class had its weekly meeting at Tealing Hall. The man was sitting on a chair within the group when he fell off it and hit the floor.
He was lying prostrate and Margaret ran over and realised he had stopped breathing. Trained in first aid, she began to perform CPR on the man, helped by another member of the group believed to be a nurse who works at Ashludie Hospital.
Shocked members of the group and dialled 999 while the two women tried to resuscitate the man by giving mouth to mouth and chest compressions.
Suddenly he came back to life but almost as soon as he gasped a breath he stopped breathing again. Unfazed, the two women continued to work on the man and managed to bring him back to life again.Now recoveringParamedics arrived and the man was given oxygen and taken to Ninewells Hospital, where he remained on Tuesday, recovering from his ordeal.
Margaret, who lives in Tealing, relived what happened.
She said, “He is a regular and was there with his wife and two grown-up daughters. He collapsed during the class and took a turn for the worst.
“We had to do something. You can’t just sit back and not do anything. I have first aid training and knew what to do and the other lady works, I think, as a nursing assistant at Ashludie.
“We brought him back to life twice. She did the chest and I gave him mouth-to-mouth.”
Asked if she thought it would have been a much unhappier outcome were they not there, Margaret said, “It would have been, I’m sure of that. It’s just lucky we were there in the right place at the right time.
“The gentleman drives down the road so if it had happened while he was driving…well, I wouldn’t like to think what might have happened, but he is in Ninewells now and he is recovering.
“We don’t know what caused it. The hospital are investigating at the moment. We don’t know whether it was a heart attack or a seizure or what.
“Obviously the class was suspended but there were other people coming in later on in the evening and once I knew the gentleman was OK and he was away in the ambulance, I continued.”
Asked if she considered herself a heroine, Margaret said, “I did exactly what anyone else would have done. That’s all.”
She declined to give details of the man’s identity or that of his family or the other lifesaver, stating that as they were members of the club the information was confidential.