Grateful man meets lifesaver (+video)

Nagesh Nair (left) was reunited with Max Burgess, whose life he saved at work two weeks ago. Photo / Ben Fraser

If it was not for Nagesh Nair's quick thinking, Max Burgess would be "floating in the sky".

The 68-year-old Rotorua man yesterday met Mr Nair, who saved his life after he collapsed in the VTNZ Fenton Park car park.

"If it hadn't been for Nagesh I would be floating in the sky, I would be dead," he said of the June 15 incident.

"That's where you've got to have these things, when you're near someone who knows what they're doing."

Mr Burgess had driven his work truck to the Marguerita St branch for its certificate of fitness. He had arrived at 7am so he would be first in the queue, it was his day off from Eco Cast in Kawerau but it needed to get done.

After a short walk he was heading towards the VTNZ office when he felt unwell.

"It was like when you turn a tap off and the water goes down a drain. It was like that for me. My heart was slowing down."

Mr Nair, who is the VTNZ Fenton Park station supervisor, saw Mr Burgess looking unwell and asked if he needed an ambulance. The last thing Mr Burgess remembers is seeing Mr Nair's feet running to the office to get help. The next thing he knew he was on his back on the ground and people were around him.

"I'm only missing about 15 minutes of the day. I remember feeling like I was running out of breath, then Nagesh showed up."

After Mr Burgess collapsed, Mr Nair performed two rounds of CPR on him. Mr Burgess was pale, frothing at the mouth and had no signs of life, Mr Nair told the Rotorua Daily Post this month.

It was on the third round that Mr Burgess came to, just before an ambulance arrived.

He was fitted with a pacemaker at Waikato Hospital.

Mr Burgess was allowed home last week, but heart surgery meant he was forced to give up his job.

"Either way, my boss was going to lose an employee, but at least I'm alive," Mr Burgess said.

Yesterday the pair shook hands and hugged.

"I've had heaps of phone calls and people talking to me about it," Mr Nair said.

"He was very pale the last I saw him but it's good to see him now. My first-aid trainer came in and said he was really happy that what he had trained had been used. I don't want to have to use it again.

"It was lucky for him and for me that I remembered."

The pair discovered they had another connection. Mr Nair used to work with Mr Burgess' brother Ian at the Fairy Springs branch. Mr Nair is travelling to Auckland this weekend to be honoured for his life-saving act by New Zealand Sangam, an Indian cultural organisation.