‘If he hadn’t thought quickly I wouldn’t be here’: Wigan man thanks gym staff for saving his life

A Wigan electrician has thanked gym staff for saving his life after suffering a heart attack on a treadmill.

Paul Sutton, 59, had just finished a 5km run at Robin Park Leisure Center on April 15 and hit the ‘cool’ button when he collapsed.

“I don’t remember much of what happened,” he said. “I felt a bit dizzy and then the next thing I know one of the instructors is kneeling over me. At first I thought, “Am I dreaming?”

“He explained to me that I had a cardiac arrest. I actually wanted to get up, I was quite embarrassed, but he said ‘no, stay where you are, we’ve got paramedics coming’, and put me in the recovery position.”

Instructor Gus O’Donnell was the first to notice Paul collapse and, along with colleagues Darren Bibby, Declan Goodfellow, Daniel Hardman and Chris Rigby, performed three rounds of life-saving CPR and administered a shock with the defibrillator at the scene.

Paramedics were on the scene within minutes and rushed Paul to Manchester Royal Infirmary for surgery. He survived the ordeal and returned to the gym three months later to personally thank the staff for saving his life.

Instructor O’Donnell said: “I had just turned my back on Paul when I heard a loud thud. I thought he was dead; he wasn’t breathing, his lips and ears had turned blue.”

“When something like that happens, you just go into autopilot. I raised the panic alarm and, to the staff’s credit, we all worked well as a team. It was amazing how quickly we did it.”

The staff’s response won praise from the doctors who treated Paul. “The doctor was full of praise for the gym staff,” he said.

“If it wasn’t for their quick thinking, I wouldn’t be here. I am incredibly grateful to them.”

Paul was fitted with four stents and a defibrillator and returned to Robin Park for a weekly NHS cardiac rehabilitation course. He is hoping to get back on the treadmill soon so he can resume his fitness journey after losing two and a half stone before the crash.

“I had been coming to the gym since February, after a high blood pressure scare. I asked the doctor if I could have been overdoing it at the gym and if that had caused the heart attack,” he said.

“They said no, it was just one of those things and I was lucky to be here when it happened.”

Robin Park is a council-owned facility run by Be Well, which has a total of seven leisure centers in the borough. In the UK, gyms are required by law to have at least one qualified first aider on site at all times – and Be Well facilities are no exception.

Councilor Chris Ready, cabinet member for communities and neighborhoods at Wigan Council, said: “We give all our instructors the training they need so they know what to do in an emergency – but nothing can prepare you for the pressure of a real-life situation when one’s life is at stake.”

“Paul simply wouldn’t be here today without the team’s quick and calm response – so I want to say a huge thank you to them for their actions. They really are heroes!”

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