A grandad who suffered a massive heart attack on a bus told today how he was saved by a good samaritan – who performed CPR on him while singing BEE GEES classic ‘Stayin’ Alive’.
Retired taxi boss Terry Holly, 67, slumped to the floor of the number 67 double-decker bus in front of horrified passengers as he headed home from seeing his ex-wife.
Brave Sharon Thorneycroft realised the dad-of-three’s heart had failed and remembered a TV advert telling viewers to administer CPR by pumping the chest in time to the Bee Gees song.
In the British Heart Foundation commercial, football hardman Vinnie Jones demonstrates proper heart massage technique – keeping the correct rhythm by singing the 70s classic.
Admin officer Sharon, who works at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, pumped Terry’s heart for a staggering 18 MINUTES until paramedics arrived – singing the words to the song as she did so.
Remarkably, she had only been on the 67 bus, bound from the Erdington area of Birmingham to the city centre, by chance, because one of her children was ill.
Terry, from Bristol, had been to visit his ex-wife who he is still friends with, in Birmingham on February 25 when he collapsed on the way home.
Yesterday he was reunited with Sharon, along with two paramedics who helped save his life.
He said: “I don’t remember too much of the actual incident, everything up to getting on the bus is a bit of a blur.
“But when people told me that a woman had saved my life by following the instructions in a TV advert I was stunned.
“Apparently she was singing along to ‘Stayin’ Alive’ as she pumped my chest.
“It must have been an odd sight but it saved my life and I will always be very grateful to her.
“I understand Sharon was pumping my heart for 18 minutes – so it must have been the extended remix going around her head.
“The remarkable thing is Sharon doesn’t usually get that bus, she was only on it that day because her child was ill and she was running late.
“I’m like the cat with nine lives, I feel so lucky.
“I can’t thank her enough, I think she should sing it from the rooftops.”
Terry met Sharon and the paramedics yesterday at Birmingham Children’s Hospital where he presented them with crystal hearts with a plaque which reads: “Thank you for saving my life.”
Sharon is now being nominated for a British Humane Society award in recognition of her quick thinking.
