A GRANDMOTHER who had a heart attack while going to meet her friends for lunch has been reunited with the paramedics and pub staff who saved her life.

Angela Roche from Pinehurst collapsed suddenly just after she walked into the Southbrook Inn on March 16.

Quick-thinking barmaid Gail Pearce called 999 while Angela's friends rushed over to help and call her family.

SWASFT specialist paramedic Nigel Philipson arrived within 12 minutes of the call, followed by paramedics Kevin McClean and Angela Heal.

The 67-year-old is now back to full health after a having a stent put in and recovering in hospital for three days.

Angela said: “The paramedics were brilliant, the hospital staff were fantastic, everyone was so good.

“It was a matter of speed and luck, if it had happened anywhere else and the response hadn’t been so swift, I wouldn’t be here today.

“I can’t the paramedics and ambulance staff enough, I’ll never forget them - though I hope I never need to see them again!

“I had no inkling whatsoever that I was going to have a heart attack that day, I was fit as a fiddle and I’ve never had any health scares before that, it was a complete surprise but I guess you never know when it could happen.”

“I got into my car and drove to the Southbrook Inn to meet my friends and felt dreadfully ill in the car park, then when I walked into the pub I just crumpled.

“It was all very manic, I was still conscious and kept saying sorry to everyone, most of that afternoon is a bit of a blur but I remember one paramedic was called Kevin, he was a lovely young man.”

Kevin said: “I could see she was unwell and was in a lot of pain, Nigel had done an ECG and from that we had a fairly good idea that she’d had a heart attack.

“My colleague Angela got a stretcher as we didn’t want her to stand up, the blockage in her artery was as thick as it could be without it stopping her heart.

“In the ambulance, we kept her calm, explained what’s going on, gave her medication to widen her arteries, and administered morphine.

“The cardiac nurse and consultant met us at the hospital, took one look at the ECG and told us to get her on the table to have a stent put in straight away.

“She was so unwell that we had a defibrillator on her chest just in case she went into cardiac arrest - time was of the essence.

“I popped in to visit her the next day and I’m glad she got through it, it’s nice to see her again, this is why we became paramedics.”

Gail said: “When I came in, she was on the floor and her friends were panicking a bit, I knelt down and asked her what happened and she said she had pains in her chest and shoulders, then we stayed with her until the ambulance came, it seemed like a lifetime."

“My husband has chronic heart disease so I suppose I’m a bit used to things like this, though it did take me back bit, I thought ‘Oh my God, that’s my mate and someone in my age group.’

“Calling the ambulance is what a normal person would have done, I didn’t do anything extraordinary.”