'Quick thinking' home care workers save man's life with CPR

Two home care workers have been commended for performing CPR on a man they were caring for, after he stopped breathing.

Ben Beddall and Katherine Moore who work for Caremark (Thanet) have both been awarded ‘Carer of the month’ by the Caremark group and are now finalists for the ‘Carer of the Year’ award.

Ben Beddall said: “We provided care as usual and gave the client his cup of tea and just as his wife went to the kitchen, he fell unconscious and didn't come to with all attempts made.

“I sensed the urgency of the situation and I asked Kate to call 999 while I proceeded to flatten his bed and check for a CPR tag to deflate the bed so if needed, I could provide CPR.

"With no CPR tag evident, I checked for breathing by looking down his chest with my ear close to his mouth so I could listen for breath as well.

“His breathing was unstable at first then within a couple seconds stopped. That was when I first started CPR. Kate had communicated amazingly well, all worries to the 999 call operators who could give advice and guidance on how to help the gentleman.”

Care worker Katherine Moore believes that “without a shadow of a doubt, without Ben’s quick thinking, this gentleman would have passed away that day”.

Garry Costain, managing director for Caremark (Thanet), expressed his pride in his two employees and gave them ‘outstanding contribution’ awards.

He said: “Performing CPR in training is one thing: doing it for real is something else entirely. Ben should be very proud of what he has done. No matter what training you have, you never know how you will react when you are faced with a real-life emergency.

“Ben acted magnificently. He remained calm under pressure and did the things that he learned in training. We are very proud of Ben and he can justly feel very proud of how he conducted himself.”

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