A student nurse saved her dad’s life by performing CPR for the first time when he had a heart attack after a kickabout with his grandson.
Dean Finch, 65, collapsed at his grandson Zac’s seventh birthday party and began foaming at the mouth as he went into cardiac arrest.
Daughter Lois leapt into action and performed CPR before using a defibrillator to restart his heart.
She had only previously performed CPR on a medical doll during training.
Lois, 31, said minutes before he collapsed he had joked to her and her mum Joy, 57, to “get the defib ready for me” as he took part in the adults versus children five-a-side match.
She said: “My friend screamed and everyone just came to a stop. His mouth was just foaming and he was on the floor and he looked like he was fitting.
“I dropped everything and ran straight across to him and put him in the recovery position. I shouted for someone to phone an ambulance but everyone just looked at me, so I rang one. It was fight or flight, and I just went into nurse mode really.”
The family were at the Goals football centre in Doncaster and Lois said the staff were “amazing” as they helped her with CPR, comforted her mum and escorted the children out of the room.
Lois said of the staff: “Dan and Louis were fantastic and have never experienced anything like this.”
At the time, in June, Lois was in the third year of her children’s nursing degree at the University of Lincoln. The single mum-of-two said: “We had been taught this sort of stuff at university on dolls.
“You’d never think to experience doing it on your dad. It was the first time I’d done anything.” Dean, a sales manager, had to have a triple bypass.
Lois, of Brigg, Lincs, said: “He’s back at work and fully fit. His dad died at 57 of a heart attack. Dad was able to watch me graduate, which was so lovely.”
