A wife has thanked medical staff at Darent Valley Hospital for saving her husband's life after he was given two rounds of CPR after suffering from a heart attack.

Lindsey Gordon-Thomas, 30, of High Street, Erith, had been unwell for a few days with a suspected virus when he was rushed to A&E by ambulance with an irregular heartbeat and severe dehydration thought to be caused by a tummy bug.

Once in A&E however, Lindsey collapsed and needed urgent life-saving treatment. 

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A&E nurses Olympiu Dragomir and Natalie Jordan were immediately on the scene treating Lindsey, with Dr Chidi Uba leading the team.

Sam Elden-Lee, A&E Consultant Nurse, said: "This is exactly what our nurses are trained to do and they did an excellent job. "The team showed absolute diligence in taking immediate control of the situation and successfully resuscitating Lindsey.

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"There is no doubt that without their swift intervention Lindsey may not have recovered"

Meanwhile, waiting at home with her two young children, Lindsey's wife Kirsty was expecting a call to say he was coming home, but instead received an urgent message to get to the hospital fast.

Kirsty, 29, said: "I got the call saying Lindsey had taken a turn for the worst and to come in straight away.

"It was the worst day imaginable."

The couple have been together for a decade and have two children daughter Marli, who is four-and-a-half, and son Jaxln who is one.

Kirsty added: "When I got there Lindsey looked like a complete mess.

"Within 10 minutes a doctor came over to me and explained Lindsey's heart had been behaving strangely and when they tried to bring his heart rate down and he had a cardiac arrest.

"The doctors had to do two rounds of CPR to save him and then he was taken to Intensive Care where he stayed for a couple of days.

"He was then moved to the cardiac ward and we thought it was an infection and the problem was his heart.

"The whole thing was just such a scary thing to go through.

"You hear so many bad things about the NHS but the staff were just amazing."

Doctors have since discovered Lindsey is suffering from congenital heart disease, a rare disease of the heart muscle, and he has been fitted with a defribulator into his chest which will shock his heart when the heartbeat becomes irregular.

He is still in St Thomas' Hospital in London having tests.