London Ambulance call handler gives dad CPR and saves his life at Bethnal Green home

Estelle knew she had to keep calm when faced with with a high pressure life-threatening situation

A London ambulance worker has saved her dad’s life by giving him CPR. Estelle Williams, who lives in Bethnal Green with her parents, woke up to the sound of screaming from her mother calling for help. When she got to their bedroom, she immediately realised there was something wrong with her father’s breathing. Her medical instincts kicked in and she moved him off the bed to start giving him CPR straight away. As a call handler, Estelle is trained in how to instruct people to do CPR, but she never thought she would have to do it herself at home.

'It saves lives'

“Working for the London Ambulance Service myself, when you take calls and you hear what’s happening, you imagine what’s happening in the background,” Estelle said. “You don’t even think it’s going to happen to yourself or your loved one. “You don’t realise how important the skills we’ve learnt like CPR and first aid are - we don’t understand the relevance until it sort of happens. “You actually see that realisation of okay, this works, it saves lives. “It’s just core skills that we’ve learnt that we repeated in our head every single day, helping others has just eventually helped your own,” she explained.

Estelle's message to everyone is to go on a first aid course and learn CPR. The proportion of people surviving a cardiac arrest that happens outside of hospital has reached its highest level of 10.8 per cent, twice the rate it was a decade ago, according to the London Ambulance service. People might recover from cardiac arrest but if they lose oxygen, they can suffer life changing damage to their health. Bethany Grace one of the first paramedics on the scene said: “A cardiac arrest is the most serious condition that someone can suffer. “Their heart has completely stopped and the only way to get that back, is to shock them. “During that time, there needs to be good quality compressions happening to keep the blood flow to the brain, which is what Estelle managed to do brilliantly. “Those early chest compressions allowed Eddie to keep going until we got there with a defibrillator and shock him.”

Abigail Williams, the other paramedic who was first on the scene, works the same watch pattern as Estelle and said: “It’s lovely that we had such a positive outcome with such a personal connection. “We rarely get to find out our patients’ survival rates and how they’re doing, so it’s really lovely for us to be able to follow up and see he’s doing so well.” Eddie, who has just celebrated his 72nd Birthday said: “I thank the medical services, their quick response and my daughter, my wife, everyone who, lucky for me, were there. “If it wasn’t for the quick response of the ambulance services maybe I wouldn’t have just celebrated my birthday. “I’m here today, and I pray that I see many more years and on the account of you Estelle.”

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