Nothing beats saving a life

Alison and Barry Hegley were grateful for Craig Watts' life-saving skills. Photo / Doug Sherring

Every couple of months, on average, Craig Watts brings someone back to life. The intensive care paramedic has been in the business of saving lives for almost 35 years.

That's a lot of hearts kept beating because of the work of Watts and his St John Ambulance colleagues.

Barry Hegley's heart is one of them. The Howick great-grandfather went into cardiac arrest as Watts was driving him to Middlemore Hospital early on July 9.

Watts and his colleague, Neil Robins, brought the 84-year-old back to life while parked on the side of the road.

A mixture of 360 joules of electrical energy - twice - chest compressions, CPR, ventilation and sheer determination meant Hegley was able to recently return to thank his rescuers.

Robins was overseas and missed the reunion, but a beaming Watts was at the Howick St John Ambulance station when Hegley arrived bearing boxes of chocolates and sincere thanks.

"I'm just so thrilled to see [Watts]. We'd loved to have had a $100 bonus bond for each of them," Hegley said.

Hegley's wife of 57 years, Alison, called 111 after her husband began struggling to breathe. Help arrived seven minutes later.

"I was so grateful they were there. I knew everything was going to be all right," the 79-year-old said.

The former nurse met her husband when he was a heart operation patient at Greenlane Hospital, where she was working, in 1956.

Hegley was born in 1931 with a hole in his heart, and with no operation available at that time his parents were told by a paediatric specialist when he was 5 that they should take their son home to Whangarei to die.

As well as various heart operations as an adult, Hegley also had a heart attack two years ago. But he did not go into cardiac arrest as he did in July.

Hegley wasn't Watts' first patient to flatline and he won't be the last.

The joy of saving someone's life never changed.

"It's the most wonderful part of the job. It's what we train for but don't do a lot. The feeling never changes. It's amazing."