Off-duty paramedic saves shopper in supermarket cardiac arrest

A Yorkshire Ambulance Service paramedic who helped to save a shopper’s life while off duty is urging members of the public to learn CPR as part of the Restart a Heart campaign.

Senior Clinical Advisor Nicola Mulligan had finished a night shift and was shopping at her local supermarket in Leeds when she heard someone calling for a first aider. She found a man who had collapsed and gone into cardiac arrest.

With an ambulance already on its way, Nicola immediately began CPR and asked the supermarket’s first aider to fetch the defibrillator. She delivered three shocks and the man initially showed signs of life before his heart stopped again. After a fourth shock, and with support from the ambulance crew, his heart began beating again. He survived.

Nicola said: “I was just pleased to have been there and to have been able to start CPR immediately. That was undoubtedly the key to his survival.”

Although Nicola had not performed CPR in a real-life situation since working on frontline ambulances in 2016, her training came back when it mattered.

She added: “It shows that you don’t have to be practising CPR all the time to get a good outcome. It’s something anyone can learn and do when someone collapses and their heart stops beating.”

Nicola, who has worked in the Trust’s Emergency Operations Centre in Wakefield since 2019, provides clinical advice to people who ring 999 for an ambulance. During a recent call, a patient went into cardiac arrest while she was speaking to her son. Using secure video technology, Nicola confirmed what was happening and guided him through CPR.

She said: “I sent a link to the son’s phone so we could have a secure video call. I was able to give him CPR instructions and live feedback on his hand position and the depth and speed of the chest compressions. When the crew arrived, they were able to get her heart beating again. That effective, immediate CPR was integral to the outcome.”