A FACTORY worker has thanked the ambulance team who saved his life after he went into cardiac arrest four times.

Rhys Parker was asleep in bed at his home in Newbridge, Caerphilly county borough, one morning when his girlfriend noticed he was making a loud snoring noise.

After discovering that he was unresponsive, Ceri Ann Cleverly leapt into action by dialling 999 and began performing CPR after carefully moving him onto the floor.

Welsh Ambulance Service paramedic Mark Sutherland was quickly on the scene in his rapid response vehicle, shortly followed by ambulance crew Mike Cashman and Dave Evans.

They delivered shocks to the 31-year-old using a defibrillator, as well as giving adrenaline, and were able to successfully resuscitate him.

Ceri Ann, who learnt CPR through a first aid course at work, said: “I woke and I thought Rhys was snoring at first, so I tapped him on the shoulder.

“He rolled back as a dead weight which is when I noticed he wasn’t snoring, it was him gasping for air. I quickly called for an ambulance and pulled him off the bed with a sheet, and started administering CPR. He stopped breathing at one point and they couldn’t bring him back until they gave him adrenaline.”

Mr Parker went into cardiac arrest twice in the back of the ambulance on route to the Royal Gwent Hospital after falling ill on Wednesday, August 30, and once more after arriving.

Medical teams were able to resuscitate him on each occasion, but he had to be sedated in hospital.

He was transferred to a specialist heart centre at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London, as his heart was only functioning at 10 per cent of its capacity.

It was there that it was discovered that Mr Parker was born with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a condition that causes the heart to beat abnormally fast for periods of time.

In order to counter its impact, hospital specialists performed a procedure called catheter ablation, which is used to selectively destroy areas of the heart that are causing a rhythm problem.

After eleven days in London, Mr Parker was taken back to the Royal Gwent Hospital by helicopter and eventually brought out of sedation.

He returned home two weeks ago and has since met paramedic Mr Sutherland to thank him in person for helping to save his life. Mr Parker will now need to undergo neurological therapy as part of his rehabilitation.