Houston man whose life was saved by two hero cops speaks out

Colin Jackson's medical emergency happened in a car park in Linwood when he went out to pick up his wife from work late last month.

He was saved by two officers - one of which had just completed CPR training less than a week before. 

The two officers and Colin (Image: Supplied)

The 64-year-old revealed his wife Diane would usually get a lift home from work, but on this occasion, he was asked to collect her.

Before picking her up, Colin said he went for a quick run as he likes to keep fit but after arriving in the car park where he was set to collect his wife, things took a turn for the worse.

Speaking to The Gazette, he said: “I got into Tesco car park, and I was driving round slowly, I picked up Diane after she came out one of the shops and that’s the last thing I remember.

“I don’t remember anything else.

“Apparently, I just drove another 50 yards round the corner, turned in the car park and just came to a standstill.

“Diane then got out of the car quickly and thought I was having a seizure or something like that.”

A cardiac arrest happens when the heart stops pumping blood around the body.

It came as a shock to Colin, from Houston, who has no past medical history.

After jumping out of the car, his wife flagged down a young couple for help, who then noticed a police vehicle in the car park.

The two officers urgently headed over to Colin and instantly got him out of his car and started performing life-saving CPR.

He said: “The circumstances get very coincidental here.

“The police were only there as one of them wanted to get a bite to eat for his shift and while he was in the shop, he was delayed for a few minutes talking to someone, otherwise they would have been gone.

“The younger policeman who performed CPR was just new into the force and he had just done his CPR training the previous week.”

Houston man Colin Jackson (Image: Gordon Terris Herald & Times)

On top of performing CPR, the officers also grabbed a defibrillator from a nearby shop and used that to help bring Colin back to life.

Colin said he was then rushed to the Royal Alexandra Hospital (RHA) in Paisley where he spent five nights before being transferred to the Golden Jubilee in Clydebank.

The 64-year-old said: “RAH doesn’t do the procedures for defibrillators and angiograms, that’s all done at the Golden Jubilee.

“They're specialists in that.

“At RAH, they had me in and done all the sort of initial tests like checking my heart rate, blood pressure, monitoring me. They prescribed a few drugs, and just got me steadied for a few days.

“They were absolutely amazing in there; the staff were brilliant, and I was in tears when I left them.”

Once transferred to the Golden Jubilee, Colin was waiting for a spot to get an angiogram, an MRI, and a defibrillator fitted.

Initially, he said they weren’t expecting to find anything from the angiogram however, they found he had one narrow artery but said it wasn’t the cause of the cardiac arrest.

Houston man Colin was saved by two cops after suffering a cardiac arrest (Image: Newsquest)

Due to the narrow artery, Colin was also fitted with a stent.

“They kind of put it down to just bad luck basically – just it can happen,” Colin said.

Extremely thankful to the two cops who saved his life, Colin said: “This is a good news story for the police, they were absolutely wonderful.

“They were so helpful to my wife at the time as well because obviously, it was pretty traumatic for her - she witnessed it all.

“The boys did so well.”

Colin is also grateful to the staff at both hospitals, along with the young couple who helped him too.

On the mend now, he said he has been doing well.

He said: “I can’t use my left hand or arm for six weeks and I can’t drive for six months and I’m a dog walker, so I certainly can’t go back to dog walking until the leads from the defibrillator have embedded themselves properly.

“I’m just kind of kicking around the house doing a bit of writing.”

Colin has also been told he will be able to get back to keeping fit in the future and make a full recovery.

He also aims to use his experience to help others, Colin said: “Once I’m fit enough, I’m going to be doing a CPR course myself.

“You never know the moment. It could happen to anybody, circumstances could mean someone could drop in front of you and if you know what to do, you could save a life.”