Paramedic Matt Hillis was today back at work and making plans for his wedding after saving his own life by diagnosing a deadly blood clot.

The 29-year-old told his fiancee Anna Mason what he suspected was wrong with him before he collapsed.

Anna, a nurse, told 999 operators the self analysis and they quickly alerted medics at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital.

The vital diagnosis saved Matt's life as 95 per cent of victims who suffer a clot in arteries around the heart do not survive.

Now the couple, of Nurseries Road, Kidlington, are making plans for their wedding next June and counting their lucky stars that Matt, an assistant ambulance paramedic with the Berkshire Ambulance Service in Newbury, is still alive.

He recalled: "The pain started in my leg a couple of days before and I just thought I'd pulled a muscle.

"I was talking to a colleague on the phone arranging a shift for the next day when it just hit me. I could hardly breathe and I was close to collapsing but I managed to tell Anna that I thought it was a pulmonary embolism. "I suffered five heart attacks and my heart stopped beating on two occasions.

"The surgeons cut open my chest and performed open-heart massage as well as injecting me with clot dissolving drugs. I woke up 12 days later thinking I'd been in a car crash.

"Those vital seconds saved my life and I'm just glad the medical training paid off or I wouldn't be here today."

Matt, who met Anna when they were staff nurses at the John Radcliffe Hospital, was unaware that he suffered the same rare blood disorder Factor V Leiden as other members of his family.

Anna, 26, who works at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Hospital, Oxford, said: "Every day is a blessing now and we're looking forward to the wedding."

Matt returned to work this week. He has already helped other cardiac arrest victims and said he was glad to get back to work because he was sick of daytime TV.

He added: "I'm lucky to be alive and I'm glad I've been given a second chance when others may not have been so fortunate."