The firefighter who helped to save the life of a cricketer after he had suffered a cardiac arrest has been hailed to have done it off-duty.Matt Wilson, 41, was at a game being played by his son at Wellington cricket club at Shropshire, when a member of the opposing team fell to the ground on Saturday.This happened after the son of the player used CPR and then Mr Wilson administered the defibrillator on the player to revive him out of the club.The fire service had trained Mr Wilson how to use the equipment and he said: "I was into trauma incident mode I guess."Simon Parker, 59, who plays for Calverhall Cricket Club collapsed and fell onto grass during a match against the fourth team of the Wellington club when he was playing as the batsman.Said Mr Wilson: - "I can recollect the over was just finished and Simon I could see had just turned and was talking to our wicketkeeper."He stated that he had moved his head aside a minute, and heard cries of first aid and saw Mr Parker lying on the floor.He said he rushed there to assist and discovered that the son of Mr Parker, Alex was performing CPR.Its captain in Calverhall, Oliver Griffiths, told it was "pretty horrific watching it go through".It was very touching to see a son attempting to save the life of his father and it remains a bit sad even to him now, he said.He was telling come on I will not leave you alone, come back to me.
'Calm management'
According to Mr Wilson, Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service trained its fire fighters to a relatively high level in trauma and the first response care.He attached the defibrillator and used it, receiving praise afterwards by Wellington Cricket Club when they stated that he handled the incident in a calm manner.My only responsibility was to get in there and assist and guide folks and we accomplished what had to be done I suppose.Upon administering shock therapy to the Mr Parker, thrice with the defibrillation device, an ambulance was called.Mr Griffiths said: "They made it very clear to me that by the time that they came the hard work had been finished and people such as Matt and Alex had saved Simon.He added that he had talked to Mr Parker on Tuesday and he was doing, very, very well and had thanked all those who had assisted him.He reported that one of his initial questions was; how many runs had he scored. and observed that Mr Parker was dissatisfied they did not get the match.That was characteristic of the man, said Mr Griffiths; and there were "bigger things than cricket".
