Northfields Estate Agents use CPR as shown by football hardman

A new campaign fronted by Vinnie Jones for the British Heart Foundation may have saved a man's life in Northfields.

In the advert about heart attacks, Jones advises first-aiders to hum the Bee Gees hit 'Stayin’ Alive' while they pump the patient’s chest at a rate of 100 to 120 times a minute.

The advert came into use in January last year after carpet fitter, Jerry Fitzgerald, 60, collapsed while working at the offices of Northfields Estate Agents, in Northfields.

Mr Fitzgerald had a triple heart bypass and recently attended his daughter’s wedding in New Zealand.

Two local estate agents Sharon Shankster, 58 (below pictured 4th on left), and Noura Mehdinejad, 23,(below pictured 1st on right) sang the tune as they performed chest compressions on Mr Fitzgerald.  

Ms Shankster told the Evening Standard: “Me and Noura were working downstairs and we came up to find this poor gentleman blue and gasping.

“If I hadn’t seen the advert I don’t think I’d have had the confidence to do anything. I remember turning round and saying, ‘Sing the song!’ Noura was there and the ambulance lady was on the phone saying, ‘Keep it going.’

Everything was happening so quickly and I was in panic mode but I could remember the ad.”

The British Heart Foundation has just relaunched the TV campaign featuring Jones and a man whose life was saved on a golf course.

The foundation said 28 people had been saved as a direct result of the original ad. But it warned cardiac arrest survival rates in England were still “dire”, with only one in five people living through them.

23rd November 2012