Hero off-duty Sutton firefighter saves colleague's life

An off-duty firefighter from Ashfield saved the life of a colleague when his heart stopped.

Karl Wilcockson, 28, who works at a local logistics firm in addition to his part-time fire fighting duties at Ashfield Fire Station was told a coworker had collapsed in the Sutton-based firm’s car park.

He rushed out and immediately took control of the situation and began to administer CPR while an ambulance was called - luckily he had been practising CPR at Ashfield Fire Station just the week before.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Karl said: “When I first discovered him he had a weak pulse and was in respiratory arrest, before he very quickly went into a full cardiac arrest,”

“I immediately started to administer CPR treatment while the paramedics were on their way, and even continued the CPR when the first responder arrived so he was able to set his equipment up.”

The man, who does not want to be named, was taken to Kings Mill hospital but he is now making a good recovery and according to Karl is looking ‘better than ever’.

Karl said: “He came to visit us at work only the other day and had actually walked all the way from his house – which is a fair way away. He’s even now talking about starting jogging again soon,”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“It was great to see him back on his feet and I’m just glad I could help in some way.

Karl said the skills he had learnt as with Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue were the reason he had been able to save the man’s life.

“To be honest, prior to joining the service I had no medical training and wasn’t even a first aider,” he said.

“Fortunately the Service provide such excellent training in such a range of things, giving us all some really great transferrable skills – such as CPR and first aid.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Ashfield’s Station Manager, Richard Hodgson, has praised Karl’s life-saving actions.

“Karl is developing into an excellent firefighter and we’re all really proud of how he put his training into practise to help save a man’s life,” he said.

“As Karl said himself, prior to joining the crew here at Ashfield he had no medical experience and this is a really good example of the benefits, for businesses, that employing retained firefighters can have.

“We provide our staff with a lot of training and a range of skills – many of which are transferrable into other work environments.”

Related topics: