A junior doctor sprang into action to help save an elderly man’s life – just hours before her first shift.
Bonnie Boyle, 21, recently moved to Glasgow from Belfast and was driving around to familiarise herself with the city before her first shift at Glasgow Royal Infirmary.
But she got lost and stopped at a shopping centre to get her bearings when an elderly man collapsed nearby, after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Bonnie rushed over and began performing CPR – the first time the junior medic had ever carried it out on a real patient.
The man, believed to be in his late 70s or early 80s, had turned blue by the time Bonnie reached him but her fast actions saved his life.
Bonnie said: “He had gone blue and there were kids around that were quite upset.
"It did take me a couple of seconds before I realised, ‘Oh yeah, I’m a doctor now’, so I went over and was just assessing the situation.
“There were two security guards there and another guy, so we called an ambulance and checked where the nearest defibrillator was.
“There were three of us recycling chest compressions.
"I’ve never given CPR in real life, just on the dummies they give us.
“Then he started to come around and we continued with the CPR until the paramedics came and they took him away on a gurney.
“I don’t know how he is but we have always been told that nine out of 10 cardiac arrests die.
“Even in hospital you rarely ever get one that can be brought back so he was very lucky.
“I don’t know if it was luck or some sort of divine intervention.”
The man regained consciousness and was taken to hospital for treatment from the Lochs Shopping Centre in Easterhouse, and is said to be recovering well.
Bonnie, who said she had been feeling nervous about her first shift at the hospital on August 5, added: “I hope it is a good omen.”
