FIREFIGHTERS have been hailed as heroes after they rushed to the aid of a man with Parkinson's who had collapsed in a village.
Members of the public had spotted the man in St Luke’s Chase at about 6.45pm last Thursday.
Tiptree resident Jennifer Lebeau, 55, attempted to help the man and called 999 after visiting the GP surgery for advice.
While waiting for help to arrive Jennifer rushed to the fire service's building in Tiptree to see if any of the firefighters could help.
She said: "When I initially went over two came, out, one in uniform the other not.
"Another four followed, six in total, they all helped, and one helped was medically trained with some sort of first case aid, putting a plaster on his hand."
She added: "It was amazing they came out to help.
"Without them, we would have been left to call the ambulance and wait as we do in Tiptree.
"We are lucky we have people like the fire bridge who do have your back."
Crew Manager Brett Sheridan, said: “We rushed to help the gentleman as soon as we found out.
"We made sure he was safe and stayed with him until the ambulance service arrived.
"As the gentleman is known in the local area, we actually ended up taking him home so he was more comfortable and redirected the ambulance there.
“We’re glad that we could help him and that is he is okay.”
Firefighters at the incident included Mr Sheridan, Emanuele Salvatore, Jon Knight, David Ford, Chris Parkin, and Robert Empson.
Annette Bloomfield, practice manager at the Tiptree Medical Centre, said: “In a medical emergency calling 999 is always the most appropriate action to take.
“Our staff gave the right advice as no GP practice is able to offer emergency treatment, and attempting to do so could impede or delay getting the patient to hospital.
“We offer our good wishes to the gentleman.”
On-call firefighters are desperately needed and to find out more visit https://www.essex-fire.gov.uk/recruitment/on-call
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