THE medical training of a teenage lifeguard saved her brother’s life.

Rhianna Stoves (19) revived her brother Sam (21) when his heart stopped beating following a respiratory arrest, causing him to collapse in his bedroom at his family’s Hexham home.

Keeping calm, the lifeguard at the town’s Wentworth Leisure Centre administered CPR to get his heart beating again until the ambulance service arrived.

Rhianna shared her story with the Courant this week as the North East Ambulance Service visited the siblings’ former school, St Joseph’s Middle, as part of Restart a Heart Day, an annual campaign to raise awareness of the importance of CPR.

She relived the horrible moment when she realised something wasn’t right with Sam’s breathing, and how she initially struggled to cope with the image of her brother’s dead body. “I’m a lifeguard and Mark Seymour at the Wentworth told us that people can still sound like they’re snoring even when they’re dead,” she said.

“There were 20 seconds between each noise so I shouted for my mum to call for an ambulance and I did CPR until it got there. He was dead for four minutes so I had to revive him.

“I hadn’t used CPR before and I just think it’s crazy that the first time I did it was on my brother. It was awful to see him lying looking all green like they do in movies, and it took me a while to look at him again after that because all I could see was him dead on the floor.

“It’s amazing to think I saved his life, and he is 100 per cent grateful.”

Rhianna was supporting the Restart a Heart Day at St Joseph’s, where her mother Eleanor works, to show what a difference life-saving skills can make.

She said: “I think it should be taught in school as part of personal, social and health education because it is such an important skill to have.

“You never known when you may need it and I certainly never thought I’d have to use it on my brother. It really can save people’s lives.”

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