Asda first-aider Julie Scott performed chest compressions for two minutes to save the life of a customer in her 70s who stopped breathing after having a seizure while out shopping with her husband at our Washington store.
Julie's efforts meant the lady had come round and started to breathe again by the time paramedics arrived to take over – and they told Julie she'd done a great job.
Service section leader Julie's coolness and quick thinking has resulted in her being awarded an Asda service superstar award by her proud colleagues.
Store manager Steven McKenna said: "Julie was absolutely superb under pressure. When the lady took ill in the store she stayed calm and cool and by applying compressions to the customer's chest she certainly played a part in keeping the customer alive. She's a credit to herself and the store."
Julie, who's 54 and has worked at the store for 14 years, explained what happened.
She said: "A colleague said that a lady had collapsed so I went over. She'd been pushing a trolley and another customer had caught her as she fell. I knew that she was having a seizure so I put her in the recovery position, but she went blue and stopped breathing.
"I told my colleague Cheryl Bell to call for an ambulance while I rolled the lady onto her back and started to do chest compressions. I didn't panic as there's no point in panicking and luckily after about two minutes she started to come round and I was so glad. She couldn't speak and she was quite disorientated. It was such a blur, as it all happened so quickly. Then the paramedics arrived and they were brilliant. They said I did well, which was good.
"It wasn't just me though, it was a team effort. Cheryl called 999 and Rachel Henderson, who's another section leader, kept the lady's husband calm. They've been married for about 45 years and he was in shock."
The customer's husband phoned the store a few days later to thank Julie for everything that she'd done and to say that his wife was out of hospital and recovering at home.
Julie, who lives with her husband Peter in Houghton-le-Spring and has two grown-up sons, is very humble about what she did.
She said: "I feel like I didn't do an awful lot really, I was just doing my job really. I'm just glad the lady was okay."
The store's online trading manager Laura Mustard, who was on duty at the time of the incident, says everyone at the store is so proud of Julie.
She said: "By doing CPR on the lady she basically kept her alive until the ambulance came. They said that if Julie hadn't done that then the lady would not have been here today.
"The way she went on with it was so impressive – she was so hands on straight away. I would have panicked to be honest of it was me, but Julie didn't. The way she reacted in just a split second was incredible. We are immensely proud of her."
