A heroic dad saved his 18-year-old son's life after he fell unresponsive on the floor in their home in High Wycombe. 

Jacob Lewis, now 19, suffered a cardiac arrest at his home after complaining he wasn't feeling well.

He remembers having a sip of his drink and telling his dad Adam that he was feeling unwell before falling to the floor.

His dad, who is a serving police officer, managed to administer CPR on his son.

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Jacob said: “I remember thinking, I really didn’t feel well. It wasn’t so much my heart but I really didn’t feel well generally. I remember having a sip of my drink and thinking, I have to tell dad. And then from what I have been told I started speaking gibberish and no one could understand me before I fell to the floor.”

Thames Valley Air Ambulance paramesica managed to get to Jacob administering lifesaving critical care.

The ambulance service paramedics and Thames Valley Air Ambulance critical care paramedics delivered two defibrillator shocks which reset his heart back into a regular rhythm, before taking him to Harefield Hospital, a specialist heart unit.

His mum Marianne Selby-Boothroyd encourages everyone to learn how to perform CPR. She said: “At the time we didn’t know how rare it is to survive an out of hospital cardiac arrest. It wasn’t until afterwards we realised how rare Jacob’s survival was.

“We were told that had CPR not started within another 30 secs there’s nothing anyone would have been able to do. I can’t believe how lucky we were on that day.

“This experience has definitely made me more aware of CPR. Anybody in the general population who can save a life until the air ambulance gets there – that’s an amazing thing to do.”

In all, Jacob was in hospital for just seven days and was discharged two days after surgery to implant an ICD, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, which will deliver small electric shocks if his heart beats irregularly.

Jacob has made a full recovery and is now enjoying his first year at university, while occasionally being reminded by mum Marianne to enjoy everything in moderation.

Before he set off for his film production course, Jacob visited RAF Benson, where Thames Valley Air Ambulance operations are based, to meet Critical Care Paramedics Nick and Simon who treated him.

Jacob said: “I wanted to come and thank the crew properly and get some insight from their point of view. I don’t really remember them from the day, so it was great to come here and thank them.”

Thames Valley Air Ambulance attended almost 500 (489) cardiac arrest patients last year, bringing them the advanced procedures and drugs which critical care paramedics and doctors are trained in delivering. Cardiac arrest patients accounted for 32 per cent of the charity’s callouts in 2021.

Nick added: “Without Adam’s intervention our job would have been almost impossible. Knowing and being able to perform CPR really is a lifesaving skill and helps us when we arrive at a patient’s side.

“I remember Jacob asking for the football score – he wanted to know if Spurs had won! I know Jacob doesn’t remember our first meeting, but it was good to see him under better circumstances.”

Thames Valley Air Ambulance receives no regular Government or National Lottery funding and relies solely on the generosity of its supporters to keep its helicopter in the skies, as well as five Critical Care Response Vehicles on the road.

On average Thames Valley Air Ambulance is called out seven times a day reaching some of the most critically ill patients in the area.

To find out how you can help this lifesaving local charity, visit www.tvairambulance.org.uk/donate