Staff at Debenhams have been praised for their swift action when a woman was taken seriously ill in their store.

As Tracey Noakes of Canewdon browsed around the towel department of the store in the Royals Shopping Centre, Southend, she suffered a massive haemorrhage.

Just three weeks ago she gave birth by caesarean section to a baby boy, born prematurely. She pointed out the bleeding to her mother Eve who described it as a "bloodbath".

As staff members became aware of the situation they grabbed new bath towels from the shelves to help soak up the blood.

An ambulance was immediately called and security staff cordoned off an area around Tracey, 37, with chairs to shield her from curious shoppers.

When the ambulance arrived, paramedics could not get the stretcher up the escalators or into the customer lift.

Resourceful staff cleared out the service lift so the stretcher could be taken up to the first floor.

Eve Noakes, of Benfleet, said: "The staff at Debenhams are angels and deserve to be praised to heaven."

As Tracey was taken off to Southend Hospital her mother was left with four-year-old Georgina and baby Michael.

The grandmother was concerned about getting the children safely back to the and folding down the heavy pram, so a member of staff offered to accompany her to the York Road car park.

Among the heroes of the hour were Ian Stoker, Janet Evans, Lynn Housden, Helen Holtsmith and Tahira Butt.

After a blood transfusion Tracey was kept in Southend Hospital where she was today awaiting the results of tests to establish the cause of the haemorrhage.car

The rescuers - Janet Evans, Tahira Butt, Lyn Housden, Ian Stoker and Ruth Steadman

Picture: STEPHEN LLOYD

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