The family of an Inverness pensioner whose life was saved by a teenage air cadet has said they will be “indebted to him forever”.
The actions of 17-year-old Chris Falkingham were described as “absolutely incredible” by the daughter of 73-year-old Georgina Latham-Hercher.
The cadet flight sergeant intervened after finding Ms Latham lying on the street in Inverness city centre last month, having suffered a cardiac arrest caused by an unidentified underlying heart condition.
Having been trained in CPR, Mr Falkingham took over chest compressions from two women at the scene and carried on for eight minutes until she had been revived.
On social media, Ms Latham said this week: “I will be ever grateful to Air Cadet Chris for his presence of mind and knowledge of CPR. A fantastic young man and a credit to the air cadet force. Thank you Chris.”
Her daughter, Karen Latham-Hercher, who is a cardiac nurse at Raigmore Hospital, told the Press and Journal that her mother had made a complete recovery.
“I’m absolutely positive he is a life-saver. There’s just no two ways about it. And so brave,” she said of Mr Falkingham, who is currently volunteering in Romania.
“It’s such a stressful situation to go through. I do CPR in my job and it’s physically and emotionally draining.
“To do eight minutes of CPR and not to have stopped is just absolutely incredible. We will be indebted to him forever. He has given my mother a second chance.
“We will never be able to thank him enough. The youth of today get such a bad press and here comes along this young man.”
Ms Latham-Hercher added that the incident showed the value of being trained in first aid and CPR.
Her comments were echoed by Professor Stephen Leslie, a consultant cardiologist at Raigmore.
“It is great that in this case a recently trained person was close at hand to provide this life saving treatment. Without this, survival to hospital is very unlikely,” he said.
“I think that all members of the public should be offered training in CPR and the use of community defibrillators.
“I believe in the Western Isles it has been agree that all secondary school children will be taught these life saving skills.
“I sincerely hope that Highland will ultimately follow suit to equip people to help us treat cardiovascular disease which remains the biggest cause of premature death in Scotland.”
