A Canadian tourist has relayed his terrifying seven-minute brush with death – and thanked the first responders and heroic fire crew who saved his life.
John Carney’s trip to Scotland took a horrific turn when he started choking on a pastry he bought from an Inverness supermarket.
The 27-year-old was in the Highland Capital in October celebrating his 5th anniversary with partner Matthew Panetta.
The pair were travelling to Skye in the car when the ordeal happened, with John ‘wobbling’ in the passenger seat and the pastry lodged in his throat.
Matthew, 26, described it as the worst moment of his life as he had to perform CPR on his other half beside the Cnoc Hotel at Struy near Beauly.
Miraculously, the local fire crew happened to pass on the road and used a defibrillator to resuscitate John.
‘Lucky to be alive’ after Highlands choking ordeal
John regained consciousness in Raigmore Hospital hours after the ordeal and was told he had been “dead” for seven minutes before his heart restarted.
The massage therapy student, and part-time teaching assistant considers himself lucky to be alive.
“I am alive because Matthew started CPR and then because the fire crew got there so quickly,” he said.
“At 10 minutes there would have been permanent damage, I was told.
“I know I am lucky.”
Partner performs CPR before arrival of Beauly fire crew
Matthew – a student, circus performer and school special needs assistant – has been trained in CPR for around 15 years.
“We were having a good day. I wasn’t staring at John, of course, I was looking at the road,” he recalled.
“But I saw him wobble, I thought he was feeling car sick. But I realised something more serious was wrong.
“I know that there are signs to look for when someone is unwell like coughing, unable to get a breath. But with John there were no signs. I asked if I should pull over to allow him to be sick.
“It was then that he started shaking as though he was having a big seizure. I was a nervous wreck.
“I remembered that he had put something in his mouth so I thought it could be choking. I started hitting his chest while I was still driving.
“It is the scariest thing that I have ever done.”
After pulling into a driveway, Matthew tried to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre.
However, John is bigger than Matthew and the pair fell over.
He continued: “That’s when I realised this was very serious.
“I started CPR and yelling or help.
“I could see John turning blue and purple.
“In that moment I thought he was going to die in front of me. I imagined his funeral. It was the worst day of my life.”
‘My boyfriend was dying’
Eventually, someone heard Matthew yelling. Her name was “Lou” from the Cnoc Hotel.
“I yelled to her to call an ambulance and shouted my boyfriend was dying,” Matthew said.
“Then another man Chris, who was ex-military, came along and he helped with the CPR.
“By this time John was foaming at the mouth and wheezing. He was purple and stopped moving. Chris told me he had no pulse.
“John’s heart had stopped. He was dead.
“The ambulance said it would be 10 minutes, but it felt like half an hour. We just kept doing CPR.”
Beauly fire crew happened to be passing
Describing it as “a miracle”, Matthew said the local retained fire crew then happened to pass the scene.
The crew took over and used their automated external defibrillator (AED) device to restart John’s heart.
Matthew said: “After what was only a few minutes – but felt like forever – the fire crew was able to resuscitate John. We were later told he was dead for seven minutes.”
When the ambulance arrived minutes later they continued to work on John.
He was taken to Raigmore in Inverness and kept in for five days, ultimately being given the all-clear.
The couple are very grateful for all the help they received. They have asked their friends to make donations to Lucky to Be Here, and are encouraging people to learn CPR.
They plan to return to Scotland to have a proper holiday as they only managed to enjoy a couple of days.
But next time, they say, will not be “quite so dramatic”.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said: “Beauly retained fire crew were passing an incident on October 18 at 10.24am when they stopped to help.
“After we used the AED device the stop sign came through at 10.56pm.
“We are glad we were able to help.”
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