The victim of a brutal street attack has been reunited with the paramedics who saved his life.
Nurses didn’t think James McMartin would survive after a thug battered him and threw him on to the road into oncoming traffic in September last year.
He suffered three blood clots to the brain requiring emergency surgery and a shattered jaw in the attack.
But thanks to Scottish Ambulance Service paramedics Nikki Webster and Lynne Ruthven, James received life-saving treatment as he lay in the street.
The 47-year-old was walking home from a wake in Partick, Glasgow , when his attacker set upon him out of the blue at about 9.30pm.
James has now had an emotional meeting with the ambulance crew who saved his life that night and says he will be “forever grateful”.
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He told the Daily Record: “They saved my life that day.
“I don’t think in their line of work they get the opportunity to receive thanks for what they do.
“If they had not me to hospital quickly, it could have been different. That made a difference, without a doubt.
“I know it’s their job, but they were fantastic. I will be forever grateful.”
James can only recall parts of the night he nearly lost his life, as his brain injuries were so serious.
“I had been to a pal’s funeral in Maryhill that day and had gone back to the pub where the wake was held,” he said.
“After leaving the pub I was walking at the corner of Dumbarton Road and Peel Street, and was at the junction, when I was seriously assaulted by someone. It was just random.
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“He started to punch and kick me while I was on the ground.
“I remember finishing a pint and the next thing I remember is waking up in hospital.”
He added: “I was really in a bad, bad way.”
James also thanked the surgeon who performed his operation and the dental surgeon who inserted the metal plates into his lower jaw.
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Connor Campbell, 21, from Dumbarton, admitted assaulting James to his severe injury and to the danger of his life under provocation.
Campbell was sentenced to 28 months in January. Judge Lord Burns described it as a “serious assault which was devastating for the victim.”
