Two paramedics who saved the life of a peer with a method of treatment they had never used before have been hailed as “unsung heroes”.

Howard Newlan and Kevin Cover – both Surrey-based paramedics with South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) – were called to Shadow Defence Minister Lord Astor’s Kent home when he began complaining of chest pain on New Year’s Day.

He suffered a heart attack, and Mr Newlan and Mr Cover had to shock him with a defibrillator before trying what was for them an untested method.

Known as thrombolysis, it involves administering a “clot-busting” drug which works to reduce damage to the heart muscle.

"Enormously relieved"

Mr Newlan said: “When we arrived he was in some distress, so we sat him down and calmed him down and started doing our routine checks and procedures for what turned out to be a heart attack.

“Those initial few minutes were very important. If we had been any longer, it would have been much harder to get him back.”

The paramedics were thanked by 61-year-old Lord Astor when they met at the ambulance service’s headquarters in Banstead on Tuesday.

He praised their quick response and said he owed his life to the two paramedics.

“I remember feeling enormously relieved when they arrived,” he said.

“Straight away their consummate professionalism inspired a lot of confidence.

“They saved my life and I am very grateful to them. I feel that ambulance clinicians are the unsung heroes of the NHS.”

Difficult recovery

Thrombolysis has been used by SECAmb since 2006.

“There is a very small risk that because you’re cleaning blood it could cause a stroke, but the benefits far outweight the risks,” said Mr Newlan.

He added that Lord Astor would take a while to recover from his ordeal.

“The guy has been through a lot,” he said. “He’s a fit man, and to have a heart attack can have a huge emotional and physical effect on your life.”

Lady Astor echoed her husband’s praise for the paramedics, and is relieved that everything turned out well.

“I was very calm in a crisis, although the ambulance journey was one of the roughest rides I’ve ever had,” she said.



Words and video by Sam Blackledge.

Picture by Steve Porter for The Surrey Advertiser.

First posted in Surrey Advertiser Online.