A HUSBAND has told how his wife had to be carried out of their bedroom window by a crane after she suffered a heart attack.
Fire crews used an aerial ladder platform to keep Joan Smith, 78, level on a stretcher because her heart kept stopping every time paramedics tilted her to carry her downstairs.
Husband Brian said: "Without doubt, the emergency crews saved my wife's life.
"They were absolutely marvellous."
Mrs Smith had collapsed upstairs at her home but each time paramedics tried to carry her downstairs on a stretcher, her heart stopped.
Realising she had to be kept level to give her any chance of survival, they decided the only way to move her to the ambulance was to use an aerial ladder platform.
Fire crews arrived from Brough and west Hull to manoeuvre the crane into place and Mrs Smith was carried out of the window on to the platform before being lowered to the ground.
An air ambulance was also called and remained on standby but ultimately was not required.
Crowds gathered in the street below to watch as the emergency crews battled to get Mrs Smith into the waiting ambulance.
She was initially taken to Hull Royal Infirmary but has now been transferred to Castle Hill where she remains in a poorly condition.
She was expected to have an operation yesterday to fit a pacemaker.
Mr Smith was at home in Westfield Avenue, Goole, when his wife collapsed. He said: "My wife went upstairs and I just heard this thud. I called 999 straight away.
"She was looking straight at me but she wasn't seeing me.
"They had to keep her horizontal, which meant they couldn't get her down the stairs.
"They had to call the fire service to help and used an aerial platform to lower her down horizontally.
"The staff were brilliant and I couldn't ask for more from them."
During the process, Mrs Smith had to be resuscitated twice as paramedics struggled to keep her alive.
Once at hospital, doctors eventually managed to get a line in through her neck to her heart to keep the blood pumping.
Mr Smith, who remains at his wife's bedside, said: "Joan hardly had a heartbeat and when they finally got her out, it was a mad rush to the hospital."
Yorkshire Ambulance Service's clinical supervisor Steve Johnson oversaw the operation.
He said: "The woman suffered a life-threatening illness which made it very difficult.
"The first crews on the scene stabilised her. But it soon became apparent that, due to the patient's critical condition, we needed to keep her as flat as possible."
