FOUND: Mystery lifesaver who helped Buxton grandad after heart attack

Quick-thinking actions of a family on the way to school saved the life of Buxton grandad and now they have been reunited with David Mellor from Sherwood Road.

Mum Alison Gates said: “We are not heroes we were just doing what anyone would of done at the time and it is such great news to know that David is feeling so well now.”
The 34-year-old was leaving her house on January 10 when she saw a car parked at the end of the drive.

She said: “As we got closer I could see there was a man who was very poorly in the car.”

She parked her car behind David’s and put her hazzard lights on then instructed her youngest son, Ralph aged eight, to wait by the wall.

Alison said: “i could see the man was fitting and knew he needed an ambulance so my eldest son Tom, 12, said that he would ring 999 while I stayed with him.

“Tom did a great job and was very calm and collected.

“The window of the car wasn’t open very much but I kept my hand on his shoulder and told him that help was coming.”

David, 73 had suffered a silent heart attack and by the time the paramedics turned up he was fitting and unconscious after his heart rate dropped to 35 beats per minute.

He was taken to Stepping Hill Hospital and had a pacemaker fitted and has been transferred to Wythenshawe Hospital for an angiogram and also a stent fitted.

David’s family were told that if it was because of the family’s actions that he is still here today, although when the ambulance turned up Alison had to leave and take her boys to school.

She said: “I couldn’t stop thinking about if he was okay. I kept checking to see if his car was still there and later on I saw two people come and take it away and I wished I had left a note or gone out to say something because I still didn’t know how he was.”

Later that evening when she was taking Ralph to cricket she told her friend what had happened.

Following the article in last week’s Advertiser her friend told her the family were looking for her and Alison and David were reconnected.

Alison said: “I’m so glad we have got to see him and make sure he is okay otherwise I would of always been wondering.”

As a thank you David, 73, and his wife Dylis, 70, have given the family vouchers for Simply Thai, a bottle of champagne, a box of chocolates and an orchid plant.

Dylis added: “This story may not have had a happy ending but it does because of Alison and her boys.”