Off-duty police sergeant revives man who collapsed in Cwmbran shop

A man who collapsed with a cardiac arrest in a Cwmbran shop has made a full recovery, thanks to an off-duty police sergeant who happened to be close by and knew exactly what to do.

James Ashley, a 52-year-old from Merthyr Tydfil, had run his parkrun and gone shopping on 4 April when a sudden wave of dizziness sent him to the floor. Sgt Adam Hollings of Gwent Police was nearby and began chest compressions straight away.

Hollings, who is 40, lives in Abergavenny and has served for 21 years, said his training simply took over and he worked on autopilot. He asked someone in the shop to phone for an ambulance, then used a defibrillator. That is a device that sends an electric jolt through the heart to help restart it once it has stopped.

Ashley says he clinically died twice. Even so, by the time paramedics arrived he was sitting up and talking. Cardiff’s University Hospital Wales then treated him, and he has since recovered fully.

A week on, Hollings visited him on the ward. The sergeant called meeting Ashley and his family the best moment of the whole episode. Ashley, for his part, said that because Hollings knew what he was doing, his 12-year-old son has not lost his father.

Hollings has been given a Royal Humane Society Resuscitation Certificate. He described the award as lovely, but said the real reward was knowing his efforts got Ashley to hospital in time for the care he needed.

Ashley took first aid training in a previous job and admits his skills are a little rusty. He urged others not to assume someone else will step forward, and to get trained if they can. Helping one person, he pointed out, also helps everyone around them.

Sharon Owen, chief executive of Calon Hearts, a Welsh charity that supplies defibrillators and teaches people how to use them, praised the sergeant’s quick thinking. She encouraged anyone facing a collapse to dial 999, begin compressions and do as the call handler says. “Doing something is always better than doing nothing,” she said.

She added that research suggests women are less likely than men to be given CPR, partly because some bystanders feel awkward about touching a woman’s chest. Everyone, she said, deserves the same chance of survival.

Why it matters

When a heart stops, every minute without CPR or a defibrillator reduces the chance of survival, and an ambulance cannot always arrive in time. A bystander with basic training can bridge that gap, as this rather good news from Cwmbran shows. It is also a reminder that learning CPR is within anyone’s reach, and that acting promptly, whoever the patient is, beats hesitating.