A BOY struck by a bolt of lightning as he left school yesterday afternoon was brought back from the brink of death by teachers and paramedics who rushed to help him.
Joe Compton, 11, was given life-saving first aid by staff as ambulance crews sped to the scene.Together with paramedics they managed to restart the year seven pupil’s heart.
The boy, who had only recently started his first term at secondary school, started breathing again but was left with serious internal injuries.
A Great Western Ambulance Service spokesman said: “We had a 999 call at 3.10pm reporting an 11-year-old boy being struck by lightning at Dorcan Academy in St Paul’s Drive, Swindon.
“The assumption is he was leaving the school at the end of the day and had gone into cardiac arrest as the lightning strike had caused his heart to stop.
“There were trained first aiders at the school who provided CPR and we arrived on the scene at 3.16pm with a first responder and an ambulance crew followed at 3.22pm.
“They took over the treatment of the lad and his heart was restarted and he began breathing for himself at the scene.
“We took him straight off to hospital at 3.34pm, giving him the best possible chance of survival – he was in hospital within 25 minutes of the 999 call.
“He’s suffered very serious, potentially life-threatening, injuries. While he was conscious by the time he got to hospital they were very serious injuries.”
Horrified teachers, parents and other children at the 2,000-pupil, mixed academy in Wiltshire gathered around the youngster as trained first aiders tried to reboot his heart.
He is believed to have suffered severe internal injuries to tissue and organs as a result of the strike.
He was transferred from Doctors at Great Western Hospital in Swindon to the specialist major trauma centre at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol.
One friend on Facebook wrote: “That’s great news that he’s back with us and well done to the first aider who really did save his life.”
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