A GRANDAD is 'the luckiest man alive' after suffering a cardiac arrest - at his doctor’s surgery.

Pensioner Ron Hands’ quick-thinking GP performed CPR and used a defibrillator to restart his heart before he was rushed to Royal Bournemouth Hospital.

The 85-year-old’s family were told to prepare for the worst because when he fell he sustained serious injuries including a bleed on his brain, a fractured skull, perforated ear drum and broken ear bones.

But against all the odds Ron survived and now he wants to thank everyone who saved his life.

Ron, a grandad-of-seven said: “I am Mr Lucky. I feel like the luckiest man alive.

“I couldn’t have picked a better place to have a heart attack.

“I was dead for 15 minutes so thank you doesn't come close.

“If I’d been walking down the street, in a pub or restaurant, that would have been Uncle Ron’s lot."

The former doorman at Royal Bournemouth Hotel said he booked an appointment at Beaufort Road Surgery feeling ‘under the weather.’

But the last he remembers is booking a follow-up electrocardiogram (ECG) at reception after his doctor’s appointment and asking for a taxi.

“The next thing I knew I was in A&E. The surgery told me the doctor did CPR and when that didn't work, fetched the defibrillator."

Ron spent six weeks in Royal Bournemouth Hospital following the incident on January 20 before being transferred to Southampton General Hospital for major heart surgery - and he even pulled through two infections in hospital.

Now the widower, who is originally from South London, who moved to Bournemouth in the 1960s, is recovering at home.

He said: “I thank God. For one reason, I don’t know why, they didn’t want me yet.

“After something like that, you realise what is important. I am blessed to have two daughters and seven grandchildren who pulled me through. Sometimes it’s been overwhelming.

“There’s still a long way to go. People knock the NHS but they don’t do a bad job. They saved my life.”