Hastings man describes how he came back from the dead after collapsing in Morrisons car park

Roger 62, writing in the Daily Mail, said: “I collapsed in and was given CPR by a passer-by. My heart had stopped. I was briefly dead. Pharmacists from Morrisons ran out with their defibrillator machine and I was shocked back into life. I regained consciousness to see faces on top of me, ‘working’ on me, my clothes all cut off.

"Eventually, I was bundled onto a trolley and, with lots of jerks and bumps, trundled to the ambulance. Police and paramedics everywhere. Festooned with wires and tubes, the ambulance raced to Alexandra Park and a waiting helicopter. Crowds had gathered — ‘crowd control’ was requested.

“I was taken by Air Ambulance to Eastbourne. The journey was to take six minutes. By road it would have been 40 minutes. I did not have 40 minutes.

“During the flight, doctors held my hand continually checking my fading pulse. There was a team waiting to receive me. I remember looking at a lot of ceilings, fire alarms and fluorescent lights as I was wheeled off to the Cardiac Unit. They got me back alive.

"We hear nothing but criticism about the NHS, from the collapsing infrastructure to striking nurses; the waiting lists and the shortages; the non-clinically trained trust managers who mismanage and are rewarded with huge salaries; the pointless bureaucracy and waste. All I can say is that the people on my case were wonderful — compassionate and absolutely expert, nothing too much trouble. The helicopter team kept enquiring how I was doing. If there were tasks outstanding, nurses and other medical staff thought nothing of hanging on an extra hour or so beyond official shifts.

And once these teams switch into action mode, each individual knows precisely what to do. No one makes a song and dance. We should be proud of such a service."

Recalling the experience of actually dying briefly, Roger said: “I can say with authority there are no Pearly Gates, nor any Fiery Furnace. Time just stops completely. There’s not even any blackness or blankness to be aware of or semi-aware of.”

Roger’s book on Peter Sellers was dramatised by HBO as The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, which won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

Roger’s full account of the experience in the Daily Mail can be found here.

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