Cabbie’s mercy dash saves sick passenger (From Bournemouth Echo)

Cabbie’s mercy dash saves sick passenger

7:00pm Friday 27th July 2007 in

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CHRISTCHURCH cabbie Simon Chorley turned his taxi into a high-speed ambulance when a passenger suffered a suspected heart attack.

After picking up the middle-aged couple from Bournemouth Airport, where they had just returned from holiday, Simon drove them to their home in the Jumpers area of the town.

But as he pulled up outside the address the man, who had complained of feeling unwell following the flight, suddenly went into a shaking fit, frothing at the mouth, and stopped breathing.

Realising it was a life and death situation and there was no time to call an ambulance, Simon turned his taxi around and headed at high speed for the Royal Bournemouth Hospital.

While the man's wife worked to revive her stricken husband in the back seat with mouth to mouth and chest compressions, Simon used his hands-free phone to alert emergency medical teams who were standing by ready to give life-saving treatment as soon as Simon arrived.

"I must have got there in four or five minutes; the adrenaline was really flowing," said Simon who later rang police to avoid copping a ticket for speeding and jumping a red light in Castle Lane.

The drama unfolded on the night of Friday the 13th but thanks to Simon's quick thinking and the medical expertise of hospital staff the patient had a lucky escape and has since made a full recovery.

"He has sent me a card inviting me round for a drink to say thank you," said Simon who is an owner-driver with the Chritax taxi syndicate.

Simon, 43, spent several years working on cruise ships before becoming a taxi driver four years ago.

He said: "Nothing like this has happened to me before.

"I have had passengers pass out in the back but that is normally alcohol-induced."

Simon is also a founder and director of a Home-safely initiative launched by local taxi drivers to provide emergency transport for stranded youngsters.