At the beginning of the week in Torrox-Costa, the prompt action of a Policía Local patrol saved the life of an elderly British man.

Police officers Alejandro Ortiz (38) and Germán Luque (39) were informed at 13.10h that an 81-year-old man had lost consciousness after suffering a heart attack. They were on the spot within two minutes and applying CPR. In fact, one of them jumped out of the car, leaving his companion to park it in order to reach the victim as quickly as possible.

A member of the public who was at the man’s side when the police arrived said that the victim had no pulse and that it was too late, but as one of the officers said, “until a doctor declares a person dead, the victim is alive,” meaning that no matter how hopeless the situation might appear, rescuers should persist with CPR.

It took five minutes for the ambulance to arrive and all the time the two policemen were taking turns with the CPR procedure. The paramedics took another 40 minutes to get his heart beating again and stabilise the victim’s condition in order to move him.

Officer German Luque said that one of the paramedics had commented that it was an exceptional case because the victim’s heart had been stopped for so long. The patient was taken to the nearest hospital, the area one in Torre del Mar, rather than taking him all the way to Málaga’s main hospital, where he remains in the ICU in a grave but stable state.

The man, who has lived around 15 years in Torrox-Costa, had just left the medical centre on the Avenida de Andalucia when he suffered a cardiac arrest. He was with a female friend, who it was that had alerted the emergency services.

(News: Torrox-Costa, Axarquia, Costa del Sol, Malaga, Andalucia – Sur)