A Perth pensioner has thanked the Dundee nurse whose quick thinking saved him from choking to death at a Dundee golf club.
Jimmy Henderson, from Burghmuir Road, had been on an outing to Ballumbie Castle Golf Club with the Perth Ex-Serviceman’s Golf Club on Sunday when a buffet led to a brush with death.
As he and his friends were tucking into their post-round meal, a piece of food became lodged in Mr Henderson’s throat.
His friends thought his retching meant he was going to be sick and so took him to the toilets, but he began to asphyxiate and his heart even stopped beating.
Their cries for help alerted Dundee nurse Patricia Brown, who works at Stobswell Medical Practice, and she leapt into action to save the 70-year-old.
However her attempt to use the Heimlich manoeuvre to dislodge the piece of food failed so Mrs Brown had to clear his airways while another customer performed CPR to keep his heart beating.
Amazingly, by the time paramedics had arrived Mr Henderson was beginning to breathe again and on the road to recovery.
He said, “I have sore ribs but that is really the least of my worries, and other than that I am perfectly well.Ambulance”I don’t really know what happened. One minute I was eating my dinner and the next thing I know I was waking up in the ambulance.
“I was really hungry so I think I must have been eating too fast and not chewing my food properly.”
Mr Henderson was taken to Ninewells Hospital as a precaution following Sunday night’s drama and put on a heart monitor, but he has already phoned Mrs Brown to thank her for saving his life.
“I phoned her and we had a nice chat,” he said. “I had to call her to say thank you.
“She and her family had arrived early for their meal so I don’t know what would have happened if they hadn’t done that.
“Somebody up there is looking after me.”
Mr Henderson has not had his medical troubles to seek.
“I’ve not long had a heart bypass operation,” he said.
“On top of that I’ve got poor circulation, I’m diabetic and I’ve had a hip replacement.
“Now this. I think I’m the Bionic Man in reverse.”