Life-saving councillors detail their vital intervention at Pimlico market place
By Adrian Zorzut, Local Democracy Reporter
Two councillors who saved a man’s life by performing CPR on him and fetching a defibrillator say they were compelled to intervene because others didn’t.
Westminster City councillors Geoff Barraclough and Ed Pitt Ford say they had been out campaigning when they noticed a man “white as a sheet” lying unconscious in the middle of Tachbrook Market in Pimlico on February 27.
Cllr Barraclough said the man had been lying face down with his eyes open between stalls and that no one approached him to help or called 999.
The Labour councillor said: “So I called the emergency services. They said, ‘turn him over. Is he breathing?’ I said: ‘No, he’s not breathing’. ‘Can you get a defibrillator?’ and I knew where one was. It was just around the corner at the GP.”
The councillor said as he looked up he saw fellow Westminster councillor Pitt Ford and told him to grab the defibrillator from Victoria Medical Centre on Upper Tachbrook Street. Cllr Ford, a Conservative councillor, returned with the life-saving equipment and a doctor moments later.
Cllr Barraclough said: “I was, meanwhile, doing very amateur CPR, as directed by the call handler. I had never done that before but hopefully I might have done some good. Fortunately, the GP then came along with the defibrillator and began doing CPR in the more professional manner, but she couldn’t find the pulse, but the man was clearly dead or bordering on it.
“Then the ambulance crew arrived and they did their wonders with injections and defibrillators and they brought him around. I checked, this was 15 minutes after I called in the emergency call for the first time to 999 and brought the guy round. So, very impressive work from the ambulance crew.”
The councillors, who hail from opposite sides of the political divide, were told the man was taken to hospital and survived. They suspect he suffered a heart attack but hadn’t taken the man’s name or details so they could check in on him.
Cllr Barraclough said he almost didn’t intervene after initially thinking the man had become ill after ingesting too much drugs and alcohol. He said: “But it was quite clear from a cursory examination that something more serious had gone on. Clearly, at that point, you’ve got to do something, right?
“And I was slightly unnerved by the fact that nobody in the area had done that already and would urge anybody, that if you do see somebody in trouble, call 999. It’s much better to be safe than sorry.”
Cllr Pitt Ford said: “When I saw someone lying down on the ground, I was trying to wrack my brain to remember my CPR. I was kind of glad I got the job of going off to get the defibrillator.
“But, similarly, I have come across bodies on the street and nudged to check if they’re alive because I think it’s quite important we don’t just walk past.”
Cllr Barraclough urged onlookers not to record people receiving medical help in the street. He said: “One thing that was also slightly concerning was that when the ambulance crew was ripping the guy’s shirt open, giving him injections, CPR and all the rest of it, the people in the vicinity had their phones out and were filming.
“And the ambulance crew, quite rightly, got rather annoyed about this. It shows a distinct lack of respect so, again. The message is: please don’t do that. Please show some respect.”
Pictured top: Councillors Geoff Barraclough, left, and Ed Pitt Ford standing at the site where they saved a man’s life through CPR (Picture: LDRS/Adrian Zorzut)