A WOMAN who helped save her partner's life after he suffered a heart attack has been honoured with a commendation from the ambulance service.
Neil Smith, 41, had an attack while his partner, Kristina Roberts, 39, was driving them home from Beverley.
She dragged him from the car and performed chest compressions for six minutes, keeping him alive until emergency services arrived.
"I was just screaming at him all the time, shouting his name and hitting him and trying to get him responsive," she said.
"I put my foot down and floored it until I got to a house and pulled up on the kerb. I dragged him as far as I could.
"His legs stayed in the car and that's supposed to be the right way to do it because blood flows to the heart but I didn't know that at the time."
An elderly man came out of the house and stayed with Ms Roberts as she performed CPR.
An ambulance quickly arrived to take Mr Smith, who does not remember what happened, to Hull Royal Infirmary.
The deep sea fisherman made a full recovery after being kept in an induced coma for two days and now has a defibrillator fitted to his heart in case it happens again.
People who suffer a cardiac arrest outside of hospital have about a 25 per cent chance of pulling through, paramedics said.
But what made Mr Smith's recovery so remarkable was that he had already survived a heart attack a few months before.
Earlier in the year, he was at home in Priory Road, north Hull, and began suffering from chest pains.
After five hours of agony, he finally called a doctor, who said he was suffering from a heart attack and requested an ambulance.
Mr Smith said: "It felt like a 20st bloke was standing on my chest."
"I just put it down to indigestion. I don't like to show pain.
"I went downstairs for a cigarette and as I turned the kitchen light on, that was it, I died. It was a very scary experience. As I hit the floor, the first paramedic was coming in."
First on the scene was Rhys Griffiths, the driver of a first response car.
He rushed into action while Ms Roberts left the room, unable to watch.
A combination of CPR and defibrillation brought the fisherman back to life.
Rachel Simpson, a paramedic clinical supervisor who attended Mr Smith's second heart attack, said he had been exceptionally lucky.
"Kristina did a fabulous job," she said.
"She was really, really calm and she did brilliantly. She kept him alive.
"We would really encourage people to go and learn bystander CPR.
"There are lots of free courses available and as Katrina's experience proves, it can be lifesaving."
Now, Mr Smith has an automatic defibrillator fitted, he can sleep a little easier.
But he is also lucky his two attacks did not happen while he was working.
"If it had happened at sea, I would have died," he said.
"I lost a friend at sea due to a heart attack.
"There are no defibrillators at sea."
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