Thanks to the dogged actions of Policía Nacional officers in Granada, the life of a 56-year-old man was saved.

After a tip off the officers had found him alone at home, not breathing and with no pulse; i.e., apparently dead but the officers carried out CPR procedure anyway.

What had led to all this was a call from the brother of the victim to say that they hadn’t seen the victim in several days, which was unusual.

He was very worried about him because he was now living alone after their mother, with whom he had lived, had recently died

The police despatched a patrol and requested the help of the fire service to gain entrance. Once inside they found him face up on his bed with his eyes open but as said above, with no pulse and not breathing. Such was their conviction that the man was dead that whilst one carried out PCR the other began the protocol for the presence of a coroner to remove the body.

They kept up the PCR protocol until the paramedics arrived and took him to the PTS general hospital in Granada. The reason that the officers had persisted with their efforts was because one of them could have sworn that he saw a flicker of his eyelid in one eye as well as very slight abdominal movement.

Once in the ICU doctors managed to bring him round and stabilise his vital life signs.