Student saves CPR instructor's life after he has heart attack in class

(Image credit: iStock)

last updated 24 July 2017

A retired nurse teaching a first aid class was saved by a retired nurse taking his course as a refresher.

David Knowles, 77, was just starting the first CPR class he was instructing at his church in Essex, England, when he started to feel horrible. He fell to the floor, and not knowing how much time he had before he might pass out, started instructing the class on what to do to help him. "The whole group was up on its feet, looking like they weren't doing very well, either," Knowles told Inside Edition Thursday.

Once the students knew this wasn't part of the lesson, they rallied to help him. Karol Chew, a retired nurse taking the class as a refresher course, gave Knowles CPR after he stopped breathing, and called Knowles' wife. Knowles was placed in a medically induced coma because the damage to his heart was so great, and when he woke up more than two weeks later, he couldn't remember much — except that Chew's CPR is likely what saved his life.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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