AN ELDERLY man who collapsed in Okehampton's town centre on January 3 had his life saved by the Devon Air Ambulance team.

The team was alerted at 12.25pm to come to the town following a 999 call. The helicopter was deployed just one minute after the call, which reported the man had stopped breathing.

Nigel Hare, paramedic and operations manager, said: 'We are continuously looking via our HEMS (helicopter emergency medical services) desk at the best possible tasking to incidents, where speed really can make a difference. 

'Recently we have expanded upon our deployment into Devon's town centres, targeting patients who stop breathing or are suffering cardiac difficulties.

'Working in partnership with paramedics from the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust who may also be at the incident, the air ambulance is able to offer not just enhanced clinical care to the patient but also a much quicker journey time to the most appropriate hospital, for those patients where time really does make a difference.  This was one of those occasions.

'The patient was situated in the town centre, but the nearest appropriate landing site was in Simmons Park. This therefore meant that my colleague Nigel Lang and myself had to run, carrying all our equipment, approximately 400 metres in order to reach the patient. 

 'Although the patient had stopped breathing, he was successfully resuscitated and conveyed to the RD&E Hospital emergency department team.'