A YOUNG PE teacher has been hailed a hero for bringing a dad of two back to life when he suffered a massive heart attack.

Jess Lee was woken in the middle of the night by frantic knocking on her door and told by her neighbour, who she had only met briefly, that her husband Wayne had collapsed at his home off Stratford Road, in Stroud.

Wayne’s heart had stopped but Jess, who had learnt CPR on a training course, spent seven minutes battling to bring him back to life.

“When I got into the house and saw him lying at the bottom of the stairs my training just kicked in,” said Jess, 22, who has worked at Archway Sports Centre for three years and qualified as a teacher last year.

“It was the first time I have had to do anything so serious and the adrenaline helped.
“I have only ever had to administer first aid for cuts and bruises to students before.”

Jess was home alone when her neighbour knocked on her door around 4.30am on Tuesday, January 14.

She told Jess that her 42-year-old husband had gone downstairs feeling unwell and had collapsed.

“She was in a hysterical state,” said Jess who had recently been on a British Red Cross first aid refresher course.

“We had only spoken in passing for the first time a couple of weeks earlier and I had told her that I had been on a first aid course.

“That's why she knocked on my door.

"When I got into their house he was dead.

"He didn't have a pulse and he was blue."

Jess told her neighbour to call for an ambulance and she administered CPR for seven minutes before paramedics arrived.

She managed to get a heart beat back after four minutes.

Wayne was rushed to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital before being transferred to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford for an operation, where he is still recovering.

Jess has now been hailed as a hero by her colleagues and friends.

“I don't like the word hero because I would do it for anyone," said Jess, who grew up in Painswick.

“I just want to highlight the importance of first aid training because if I hadn’t been there, Wayne might not be alive now.”

For information about first aid training go to www.redcross.org.uk