Takeaway owner Hamid Khazaee is thanking a good samaritan for saving his life after he collapsed on his shop floor.
He was working at his Simply Grill pizza shop on Durham Road in Low Fell, Gateshead, in the early hours of Sunday morning when he had a cardiac arrest and slumped behind the counter.
But quick as a flash, a woman being served raced to the rescue and plucked him from death as she performed CPR.
Now grateful Hamid is wanting to find the woman in the red spotty dress who saved his life and aims to reward her for her efforts.
Chocking back tears, emotional Hamid, said: “I had been working with my assistant and I felt thirsty. I had a Fanta and then my assistant asked if I was alright.
“I then blacked out and I don’t remember anything after that. But I was told that this woman must have been medically trained as she performed CPR for about 15 minutes.
“I am so lucky what she did for me. She saved my life and without her I would have died.”
A member of staff took a picture of the life-saving feat and captured the heroine in a red spotty dress on camera.
She has a distinctive tattoo on her leg and the family hope they can track her down to thank her.
Businessman Hamid, 62, of Riding Mill, Northumberland, added: “I needed heart surgery but I feel good now. I am so grateful to everyone who helped.
"My assistant and the customers, I believe including the woman who saved my life, stayed behind to close the shop for me when I was taken by ambulance to hospital. Everyone was so helpful.”
It was around 2am on Sunday, September 22, the mystery woman performed CPR on Hamid for around 15 minutes until paramedics arrived and took over.
Hamid was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital but was transferred to the Freeman Hospital where he underwent heart surgery and had a stent fitted.
Doctors discovered he had a blockage to one of his main arteries.
He was in intensive care for three days but is now recovering on a ward.
And, from his hospital bed, he is wanting to find his hero to thank her personally for saving his life.
“I want to see this woman eye to eye and tell her how thankful I am. Without her I wouldn’t be here. I was told she did CPR for 15 minutes until the ambulance arrived.
"Obviously she is my hero and I would like to meet her to thank her and to reward her if I can,” added dad-of-four Hamid, who has sons Kayvan, 30, and Kamron, 22, and daughters Natasha, 27, and Sara, 25.
Hamid is originally from Iran but came to the North East in the 1970s due to the Iranian Revolution and studied at Durham University. Since then his business empire has flourished and he owns a chain of takeaways across the region.
He was working in Simply Grill after the manager died of a heart attack last year and he is in the process of finding a replacement. But tragedy struck when he was doing the late night Saturday shift which flowed over into the early hours of Sunday morning.
After hearing the news Hamid’s twin sister, Farzaneh, flew from Canada to be by his side.
Daughter Natasha, of Hexham, said: “We think the woman who performed the CPR was medically trained. The likelihood of CPR working after being performed for that length of time is a bit of a miracle. If it wasn’t for this person things could have turned out so different.
"It is a miracle that this person was there at 2 o’clock in the morning, in my dad’s pizza shop and was able to do this for him.
“We are so grateful. We feel so lucky that he is with us and that this person saved his life.
“After his surgery he said he wanted to meet her and reward her in some way.
“She was wearing a red spotty dress and has a really distinctive tattoo on her leg, we really hope to find her.”
Alex Mason, Community Development Officer with the North East Ambulance Service, said: “The passer-by has done a fantastic job and undoubtedly helped to save this man’s life by starting CPR so quickly. Without their intervention, the outcome could have been very different.
"I believe that everyone should learn how to carry out CPR, so they could provide chest compressions in the event of someone suffering a cardiac arrest.”
