St Dunstans Conduct a different kind of Raising
Earlier this year, members of St Dunstans Lodge 7973, Viv Morris and Rod Kerr were at Strode Swimming Pool to attend a swim session, within minutes of starting Rod Suffered a Cardiac Arrest and was floating face down in the water. The Life Guard, Gabriel Lawless, acted immediately and, along with another member of the public, dived in to move him to the side of the pool, where Viv grabbed his arm with the strong grip, to raise him from the water. Gabriel then acted immediately to check for signs of life, of which there were none and Rod was turning a nasty shade of blue! The pool team acted immediately, in a well rehearsed manner, to resuscitate Bro Rod.
The pool was cleared and Alison Parkman, a qualified nurse, also attending the swim session, administered the defibrillator, which thankfully brought Rod’s heart back to a steady rhythm and saved his life. Paramedics also arrived quickly to the scene complete with the Air Ambulance, in an impressive display of emergency treatment.
Thankfully Rod is back to normal life, including being fitted with a new turbo charger (pacemaker). The incident occurred on Rod’s Birthday and Viv says “Rod is the only guy I know, who was born, died and brought back to life again on the same date!”
As a consequence, St Dunstans purchased £600 of pool side equipment for Strode Pool and Gabriel received a life saving saving certificate from Fusion, his employer.
A big thank you from Rob, Viv and all at St Dunstans Lodge for a great job well done!