Amateur footballer's teammates save his life after he has heart attack mid-game
John Chamberlain, 53, was playing a match in Blackpool when he collapsed after being subbed off.
An amateur footballer has thanked his teammates who saved his life after he suffered a heart attack during a game.
John Chamberlain, 53, was playing a match in Bispham, Blackpool, last Thursday when he collapsed after being subbed off.
His friends Bethanne Billian, 32, and David Miller, 43, thought he was joking at first after he made a “snoring noise”, but they sprung into action when they realised he was in trouble.
They performed CPR on John and used a defibrillator when he stopped breathing.
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Father-of-one John, from Blackpool, said: "At that moment in time, I was dead and I'm not breathing.
"They just brought me back to life. I'm humbled and gobsmacked that they've been able to do it.
"It's just amazing it happened there and they got me back to life."
John, who runs football league Not Match Fit, had already scored four goals in the first half of the mixed-sex match when he felt his chest get tight and he started to go dizzy.
As he was substituted eight minutes into the second half, John also felt he was out of breath.
He then sat down and blacked out completely before his teammates stepped in.
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John was rushed to Blackpool Victoria Hospital and had a stent fitted in his heart less than four hours after he had the heart attack.
He was discharged six days later, on 10 May, and doctors said a blood clot in his heart caused it.
John said the week before the incident, he “started to feel a bit of chest tightness” but put that down to “being really unfit.”
He said playing the match saved his life because if the heart attack had happened elsewhere, he may have died as nobody would have found him.
Widower John, whose wife Karen, 52, died of cancer last September, added: "I'm a first aider myself and you hear that quite a lot of the time, you can't get them back.
"Whether you try or not, sometimes you fail and that's just the way it is - people are dead and they don't come back.
"Apparently this was quite a hard CPR and they thought they was going to lose me at one point."
