A LUCKY man who survived after suffering a heart attack in the middle of the night has met the team of paramedics who helped saved his life.

Trevor Filer, from Chippenham, suffered the cardiac arrest at in his home last August.

After his wife spotted the signs and called 999, she was talked through how to give life-saving chest compressions until help arrived.

In a dramatic audio file released by the South Western Ambulance Trust, the 72-year-old’s wife Karen can be heard pleading for help as her husband lies unresponsive on the bed.

“His eyes are non-responsive – they’re open but non-responsive,” his wife told the emergency call handler.

“I can just hear that gurgling noise coming out of him.

“I don’t think he’s breathing, to be honest with you. It has all gone quiet and I can’t feel a pulse.”

Following clear and calm instructions Mrs Filer managed to pull her husband to the floor, check for breathing and eventually start chest compressions counted in by the calm voice on the other end of the line.

Shortly afterwards, paramedics from the trust and Wiltshire Air Ambulance arrived, where Mr Filer, was hooked up to a Lucas machine - a machine that gives regular chest compressions - and then taken to Bristol Royal Infirmary.

Mr Filer, who went on to spend five weeks in hospital recovering from his experience after complications with pneumonia, met the land and air based crew on who saved his life on February 6.

“Karen saved my life with prompt CPR and I’m so grateful to everyone else who was involved in treating me,” he said.

Mrs Filer added: “CPR training needs to be part of everyone’s education. I was just the first person in the team who saved Trevor.”

The couple now want to spread their passion for encouraging others to learn the importance of basic first aid and CPR, so that more lives can be saved.

Currently only eight per cent of the country’s population will survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The chances of survival increase dramatically when nearby people step in and take action to help keep people alive while emergency services make their way to them.