Scottish hero tells of attack horrors
A SCOTS lifeguard celebrating his engagement in London gave CPR to a woman who later died in Saturday’s attack.
David Anderson and Sam Thom were on London Bridge toasting their engagement when the horrific events unfolded.
The lifeguard from Bellshill, Lanarkshire, tried desperately to save the woman’s life, spending 45 minutes working on her, aided by her fiancé and a policeman but she died.
Paramedics ultimately told them to stop because it was too late to save her.
I looked out the window and could see a girl lying in the road
David, 29, said: “I looked out the window and could see a girl lying in the road. I went outside because I’m a trained lifeguard, gave her a quick assessment and started CPR because she wasn’t breathing and her injuries were serious. Her fiancé was standing next to her and he was first aid trained too, so we started doing two-man CPR. A police officer came and gave me a break on the compressions, then he got a defibrillator but it wouldn’t do anything because there was no heartbeat.
“We kept going until the paramedics arrived and we were working on her for a good 45 minutes but eventually they called it and that was it, we stopped.
“After that, I helped with a Kiwi guy but his injuries had been patched up and he was in an ambulance, so I just kept him talking.
A minute's silence held for victims of London Bridge attack
“Then there was a girl with spinal cord injuries on a board which needed lifting, so I helped with that and by then there was only one other casualty.”
He and childcare student Sam, 25, from Kilmarnock, travelled south on Saturday to celebrate their engagement and are staying until tomorrow, when they go to New York.
David said he had been on the scene “five or 10 minutes” before he realised there were other casualties across the bridge.
He added: “The medics had so much determination when we were working on that girl, even with the extent of her injuries.
“They just kept going, non-stop, we all did. It took a while before we realised what else had happened.”
Sam added: “I thought there’d just been a hit-and-run but five or 10 minutes later we heard the bangs and the police told us to run to the other side of the bridge.
“I tried to go back for David but they wouldn’t let me, and they started putting tape up. We could hear loads of noises and bangs. That’s when we knew it was more than just a car accident.”