Off-duty Royal Papworth nurse saved dad's life after he had heart attack while shopping in St Ives
'I am just glad I was there at the right time'

An off-duty cardiology nurse from Royal Papworth Hospital helped save a dad's life after he suffered from a heart attack in St Ives. The man collapsed in town and the hospital worker, who was shopping in the area performed CPR.

Miroslaw Dziadosz, 54, suffered a cardiac arrest on June 21 shortly after leaving a shop in the St Ives town on his bicycle. Two off-duty police officers were first to arrive on the scene with Claire Chapman, a deputy sister in cardiology arriving very shortly after. She immediately began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Mr. Dziadosz.

In total, Mr. Dziadosz did not breathe for eight minutes before he regained consciousness.. An air ambulance was called before being stood down, instead, the East of England Ambulance Service drove the patient to Royal Papworth Hospital for emergency insertion of stents to unblock his arteries.

Recalling the ordeal Claire said: “I had just been shopping for tea that night and saw a big gathering of people as I left the store. I went over and saw that someone had collapsed, checked his pulse – which wasn’t there – and saw that all the colour was drained from his face.

“Instinct kicked in and I went into auto pilot, performing CPR in rotation with a couple of other people and we managed to get Mr Dziadosz breathing again.”

Having worked in the cardiology wards at Royal Papworth for 12 years, Claire has looked after patients who have had treatment for cardiac arrests, heart attacks and angina, including coronary stent insertion and pacemaker implants. When she returned to work the following day, she was reunited with Mr. Dziadosz and his family on the ward as he made his recovery.

Claire added: “His son, daughter-in-law and their one-year old baby were on the ward visiting and they spotted me and ran straight over to say thank you. It was a lovely moment, almost overwhelmingly emotional.

“I have never had to do anything like this before. You hope to never use your CPR skills but it is so important we are all trained in case this happens. I am just glad I was there at the right time.”

During their reunion, son Mateusz, his wife Monika and their daughter Emilia all from Chatteris presented Claire with a bunch of flowers and gifts to say thank you. An emotional Mateusz said: “We are so grateful.

“If it wasn’t for Claire and everyone else who helped that night, my dad would not be here and Emilia would not have a grandad to watch her grow up.”