A BROMSGROVE woman who provided a family with the last chance to say their final goodbyes to a loved one has been handed a prestigious accolade.
Beverley Green, of Ryefields Road, was called on stage to accept her award at the West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust’s Excellence in the Community Awards last week.
Beverly was selected for the Public and Emergency Service Award for her bravery and determination helping a woman who went into cardiac arrest in a Bromsgrove restaurant.
It was a case of being in the right place at the right time for the 37-year-old who is not only a community first responder and ambulance driver, but also a member of St John Ambulance.
Bev said she was just leaving the restaurant after having a meal with her friends when a waiter approached her and asked for help.
She followed the waiter to a woman, who was complaining of chest pains, she thought she was having an asthma attack – her friend, a nurse at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital, called an ambulance while she attempted to calm her down, she added.
Bev said she was checking the woman’s pulse when it dropped dramatically so she told her friend to hurry the ambulance up.
She added this was when the woman went into cardiac arrest – she and her friend then started CPR and basic life support until the paramedics got to them.
Bev said the woman’s heart stopped and for a short time she was technically dead but when the ambulance crew got there, and used adrenalin, they managed to get her heart going again before she was taken to hospital.
Sadly the woman’s life support machine had to be turned off a week later.
“It was not the first time I have done something like this and in my life it probably will not be the last,” she added.
“I was very shocked to hear about the award – I presume it was the ambulance service or a police officer who nominated me.
“I do not see myself as a hero it is just something I have done and will do again.
“Some of the other people in the room had done far more heroic stuff than what I had done.
“Unfortunately I was not driving otherwise I would have had my kit, which I keep in my boot, the outcome might have been different.”
