27/07/2026
Mel tragically lost her dad to a cardiac arrest when she was young. Now, she's been honoured for helping save the life of a dad who suffered a dramatic cardiac arrest of his own.
Registered Midwife, Melanie knows the devastating impact of cardiac arrest first-hand, but her quick thinking helped spare another family the same loss that she experienced.
While watching her sons play football, 60-year-old Peter suddenly collapsed playing hockey on a nearby pitch. When those around him realised he wasn't breathing, Mel ran over and drew on her years of NHS experience to coordinate life-saving CPR.
Mel was just a teenager when her dad sadly passed away at 42 from a cardiac arrest with no one around him who knew how to respond.
After spending decades in our hospitals honing her resuscitation skills, she was able to coordinate continuous CPR for Peter while a defibrillator was used repeatedly to restart his heart.
In total, Peter received around 20 minutes of CPR and five shocks before paramedics arrived on scene. Against the odds, he was still alive when he was handed over and brought to Worcestershire Royal Hospital for emergency treatment.
He described waking up in hospital in significant pain from the life-saving interventions, including broken ribs from chest compressions, but with a growing realisation of how close he had come to dying. “I look back now and think I’m just incredibly lucky,” Peter said.
Miraculously, Peter experienced no lasting brain damage and is now back doing what he loves on the hockey pitch again.
For Mel, who has completed annual resuscitation training for more than 28 years, the incident was a powerful reminder of why those skills matter. “You can go your whole career thinking you’ll never need to use it, but when it happens you realise just how privileged you are to be able to make a difference”, she said.
Mel and others involved were recently recognised with an award from the Royal Humane Society but says “the fact that he’s alive is what matters”.
Thanks to Mel’s quick thinking and years of training, Peter’s family were spared the same devastating loss she experienced.
