A woman who suffered a heart attack whilst playing bingo in Brierley hill has praised an off duty paramedic for saving her life.

Sandra Andrews, 56 from Kidderminster, was at Mecca Bingo with her sister on Tuesday February 24 when she suddenly collapsed.

Fortunately for Sandra an off duty paramedic was close by and rushed to her aid.

Lee Farley, acting Incident Support Officer from Dudley Ambulance Station, was enjoying his day off and had just dropped his wife off at Mecca when he noticed a commotion across the bingo hall.

Lee said: “I went over to see what was happening and found a woman collapsed.

"I introduced myself as a paramedic, proceeded to assess Sandra and quickly identified that she was in cardiac arrest.

“An off duty nurse quickly joined me, closely followed by Brierley Hill based First Contact Practitioner Stuart Ross, Stourbridge based Emergency Medical Technician Jon Winall, Emergency Care Assistant Debbie Gwen and Dudley based Incident Support Officer Rebecca Ross.

“We worked together as a team to perform Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation on Sandra and battled to save her life whilst the bingo continued in the back ground.

"Stuart and Jon continued CPR and administered three shocks to her heart with a defibrillator en route to Russells Hall Hospital. When they arrived at hospital Sandra was breathing.”

Just over four weeks after her ordeal, Sandra is out of hospital and recovering well at home.

On Friday, Sandra visited West Midlands Ambulance Trust Headquarters in Brierley Hill to meet Lee who helped save her life.

Sandra said: “I don’t normally go to Bingo on Tuesdays and would have been at home on my own if I’d have collapsed. Everything fell into place that day; it was fate that I was there and that Lee was there too.

“I owe Lee, his colleagues and the off duty nurse everything. If it wasn’t for them my family would be grieving now as I’d be pushing up daisies.

"Thank you for saving my life.”