By EMS1 Staff
VICTORIA, Australia —An on-duty paramedic saved his own life when he diagnosed he was having a heart attack and drove himself to the hospital.
BBC.com reported that David Watson was working alone Sunday night when he felt “crushing chest pain and tingles down both arms.” He took out the ECG machine on his ambulance and diagnosed he was suffering a major heart attack.
“I thought, ‘Oh … that’s not right,’” Watson said. “Trying to save my heart muscle, I took myself in the ambulance to the hospital and rang their doorbell and told them I had chest pain.”
Watson, a 25-year veteran, was eventually airlifted to a hospital. Within minutes of landing, he had a clot removed from one of his coronary arteries.
“I was awake the whole time. They removed a clot and put a stent in,” Watson said. “I’m lucky to be alive, because I was so quick to get on to it.”
Doctors recommended that Watson takes two months off work to recover.