Lifeguards Give Andy A Second Chance

By Duncan Horscroft on February 23, 2011 in News

Englishman Andy Palmer couldn’t believe his luck when he bought a house on the hill near Bronte Beach.

It was everything he had ever wanted with unsurpassed ocean views and a lifestyle most can only dream of.

He’d arrived from London two years earlier knowing that Bronte was the place for him after a couple of earlier visits.

And if it wasn’t for that sea change Andy would probably still be dead.

You see, Andy did die.

Bang! Flat out on the footpath just up from Tamarama Surf Club. End of story…  no heartbeat… no breathing… good night nurse, hello Jesus.

Into the abyss he went and the lights flashed before his eyes… before being turned back on again.

Andy was on a jog around the coastline and as he turned the corner in to Marine Parade he suffered a massive heart attack.

A couple of quick thinking girls ran to the lifeguard tower and alerted Michael ‘Mouse’ Jenkinson and Bobby Yaldwyn, who sprinted to the scene to find Andy without a pulse and with no signs of breathing.

“When we got there a lady was attempting CPR and we immediately took over,” Jenkinson said.

“Aaron Graham was passing by on his motor scooter and jumped in to give us a hand with the first cycle of CPR, while Anthony ‘Harries’ Carroll and Bobby Yaldwyn came around from Bronte to lend assistance.

“Andy was definitely dead when we got to him and we ended up having to shock him four times with the defibrillator while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.

“When the ambos arrived about 15 minutes later they also hit him with the defib and that was when he started showing signs of life.”

Three days later Andy woke up in hospital after a quadruple bypass and with a defibrillator inserted in his shoulder.

“I wasn’t in great shape and had given up smoking a week earlier,” Andy said.

“I decided I would work on my fitness and I started jogging.

“I don’t remember anything at all about the heart attack, just waking up three days later.”

He said it really was the best decision of his life moving to Bronte.

“Yeah, when I saw the place a few years ago I decided it was the place for me,” he said.

“I owe my life to the fantastic job the local lifeguards did and the recent thank-you presentation to them and the paramedics was totally insignificant in comparison.

“There wouldn’t be too many guys around Hyde Park (London) who could have done what they did.”