A former St Andrews man has thanked Tayside Mountain Rescue for saving his life after he was plucked from an isolated Munro following a serious heart attack.
Sixty-four-year-old David Prest, the former manager of the C&A store in Dundee and a one-time member of Tayside and Angus Chamber of Commerce, went into cardiac arrest while coming down Carn a’ Chlamain, north of Pitlochry, alone.
“I come back to Scotland once a year to go walking and I try to squeeze in as many Munros as I can,” he said.
“I went up the mountain at a reasonable pace but I didn’t realise how much wind there was on top it must have been about 60 or 70 miles per hour.
“Going down I was quite happy and was even jogging when suddenly I was just stopped in my tracks. There were pains in my chest and I had to sit down and put my head between my knees.
“I knew it was serious after about two minutes so I dialled 999 and asked for mountain rescue.”
He was able to give his exact coordinates thanks to software on his mobile phone but, as his heart struggled to pump blood round his body, he began to lose feeling in his limbs.
Fortunately, Sergeant Alan Pettigrew, who he had spoken to when he rang 999, called him back regularly to help him maintain consciousness.
“He phoned about six times to keep me talking. He knew the area to was even able to identify where I’d left my bike,” said Mr Prest. “By the end he knew everything about me but my inside leg measurements.”
When the helicopter finally arrived, four members of the mountain rescue team had to carry Mr Prest farther up the mountain on a stretcher before he could be airlifted to hospital.
“It was about an hour and 40 minutes by the time the helicopter arrived at the bottom of the glen but it was a glorious sight,” said Mr Prest.
He was flown to Ninewells Hospital following the June incident and suffered another cardiac arrest after arriving at the accident and emergency department.
“I remember them ripping off my clothes and then nothing until I was vomiting. My heart had stopped and they had to bring me back,” he said.
Mr Prest, who now lives in Brentwood in Essex, was then given emergency surgery where three stents were fitted to repair the damage to his arteries.
He also learned that he had suffered a minor attack five years earlier but had been unaware of what had happened.
“The staff were brilliant. They phoned my wife before I went into surgery at 10pm and I was able to speak to her, then again at 2am when I came out,” he said.
Mr Prest has already donated money to the Tayside Mountain Rescue and intends to carry out more fundraising work.
The Glen Clova duathlon, one of the charity’s biggest fundraisers, takes place this weekend and he is urging people to support the charity.
“There were actually nine people called out to help me if the helicopter hadn’t been able to reach me there was also a Land Rover on its way,” he said.
“But I don’t think I would have survived if the helicopter had not been able to reach me.”