Jack (12) thanks medics for saving his life after cardiac arrest at school

Jack Thompson, who was 11-years-old at the time, had just walked out of the school gates of The Priory Belvoir Academy, in September last year, when he collapsed.

Luckily for Jack, an off-duty nurse and a GP were at the school collecting their own children and they were able to stabilise him before a crew from East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) arrived to treat and take him to Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham.

After meeting the ambulance crew, doctor and hospital nurse and thanking them, Jack, who is now 12, said: “I’m just really excited to meet everyone who saved my life.”

After Jack collapsed, a concerned onlooker rang 999 and before the ambulance arrived off-duty nurse Nova Charles and GP Pete Watson came to his aid.

Nova, who works at Nottingham City Hospital, said: “When I parked my car at the school I saw crowds gathering.

“As I got closer to the crowd I could see Jack laying on the floor and he was blue.

“I started to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and did mouth to mouth.

“I performed six rounds of CPR on him.”

In the meantime, 15-year-old pupil Keiron Stanley ran to collect a local defibrillator from the school and he recalled: “The outcome is a miracle.

“The last time I saw him was when he was being taken away in the ambulance when he was at death’s door.

“I didn’t think he was going to survive. It was really scary.”

His friend, Jack Jackson, also 15, who was also on the scene said: “I saw him having a convulsion.

“I alerted people to this fact whilst at the same time getting people away, and getting people who knew what to do, to come over.

“Then 20 to 30 seconds passed by, which felt like a lifetime to me, but people then started to know what to do.

“I want to thank the ambulance service and everyone else who was involved in the response that day.”

Dr Pete Watson, the GP on the scene, said: “The defib, alongside the CPR, were the key elements in giving Jack a vital chance at survival.

“We administered a shock and we managed to get a heart rhythm back.”

Soon afterwards EMAS technician Marcus Bryan and emergency care assistant Gemma Woolley arrived on the scene, alongside Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance crew Mark Folman and Lucy Hutton.

They were backed up by paramedic and clinical operations manager, Ed Cannon, who said: “They were doing a great job and I was there to support and lead the team.

“Jack was quite agitated and he wasn’t breathing for himself.

“He had a pulse but we were in a situation where his brain had been starved of oxygen so he started fitting again.”

The ambulance crew gave him the relevant treatment on scene which meant that Jack stopped fitting and he could then be safely transported to hospital.

He was later diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart condition which affects the walls of the heart chambers meaning they can become stretched, thickened, or go stiff.

Jack has since had an ICD unit fitted into his heart which regulates irregular heart rhythms and can administer tiny shocks without him being aware that it is happening.

In the UK, there are more than 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests each year and survival rates are low.

Less than 10 per cent of patients experiencing a cardiac arrest will survive to be discharged from hospital.