Shannon Jeffries with her golf buddy Darren Oliver – SWNS
A quick-thinking woman saved her friend’s life after witnessing him having a heart attack during a video call.
Shannon Jeffries was about to head out into the English countryside for her weekly nine holes with buddy Darren Oliver, when the 60-year-old rang her to say he felt too unwell to play.
But, as they chatted, Darren, who was sitting in his car outside his home, began to stutter and then dropped out of frame.
“I knew immediately when I saw his face on the screen that something was very wrong, as he looked so grey.
“He got the words out and then started stuttering and dropped the phone.”
With no time to lose, Shannon rang Bewdley Pines Golf Club, where staff gave her Darren’s address.
She raced to the scene and found him slumped over the steering wheel.
“I rang the ambulance straight away and the operator told me to drag him out of the car onto the ground to clear his airways.”
Darren weighed more than 280 pounds, so that wasn’t going to be possible: “He was still breathing, so I managed to push his seat back and tilt his head back.”
Luck and a good friend helped save Darren Oliver – SWNS
Paramedics dashed to the scene but as Darren was being driven to hospital, he suffered a heart attack in the ambulance.
He was resuscitated by the paramedics, but after another cardiac arrest, doctors warned her to say goodbye to her friend.
“It sounds daft now, but I pulled a golf ball out of my bag and put it in his hand and told him to hang on. He was squeezing it.”
Darren then underwent emergency surgery to fit two stents in his arteries which had become blocked, and recuperated in the hospital for the next two and a half weeks.
In the months since his heart attack, he lost a whopping 112 pounds (8 stone) and is back playing golf with Shannon every week—and the pair have since raised over $2,000 for the British Heart Foundation with a marathon 36-hole golf challenge.
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“I’m so grateful to Shannon, as it’s terrible to think what might have been if she hadn’t got to me.
“I’ve still got Shannon’s golf ball. It’s a Titleist, so she’s not having it back. I carry it in my bag as a reminder always.”
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