A rail passenger who witnessed a man suffer a sudden heart attack on the platform was shocked that none of the defibrillators were working.

The eyewitness noticed the man who had luggage was waiting to board a train at Oxford station.

He said: "He was waiting for the train with a friend and he sort of collapsed and fell to the ground. Everyone went over to see if he was all right and then we realized that he wasn’t responding.

"A man started to give him CPR who I've now been told was a doctor so that was very lucky. The platform staff ran off to get the defibrillators.

"They brought both of them back and the doctor started to unpack them and then he obviously realized they had no power. He looked at it and said, there’s no power to this.

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"Everybody could see that obviously the guy who was doing the CPR was a bit annoyed but he carried on and I guess now that was his medical training.

"Shortly after that the ambulance arrived and paramedics took over."

The man was taken by ambulance to the John Radcliffe Hospital.

The eyewitness said: "There wasn't panic but there was controlled panic among the crowd, I would say, although the man doing the CPR stayed calm and carried on."

But he said everyone was shocked by the defibrillators not being powered up.

He said: "It just seemed a bit odd that these medical devices are at a train station and surely there should be some sort of regular checks that they are up and running.

"I’ve read in the papers that the station is going through a refit but I don’t think that is an excuse for medical equipment not to be available.

"It’s a life saving device and when it mattered it didn’t work. I could even understand one defibrillator not working but not two."

GWR, which operates Oxford Station, confirmed that a passenger suffered a suspected heart attack at the station and was assisted by a doctor prior to the arrival of the ambulance service.

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The train company has now launched an investigation into the incident which happened on Tuesday October 4.

A spokesperson said: "While some of our stations host defibrillators, they are owned and maintained by a number of different charitable organisations.

"We are currently investigating the incident and reviewing the provision of defibrillators across our network."

 

 

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