Ipswich men saved colleague's life after cardiac arrest

James Carter and Matthew Bailey, who are Environment Agency officers in the Mid Suffolk Field Team in Ipswich, have been nominated for a Royal Humane Society award after coming to their trainer's assistance during a training session break.

They were attending a team training session on November 3 last year when Carl Tibbles began to feel unwell.

During a break, Mr Bailey found Mr Tibbles unresponsive and struggling to breathe.    

They correctly suspected that Carl was suffering a cardiac arrest and James called 999 while Matthew grabbed the team’s defibrillator.

They provided cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to Mr Tibbles and delivered shocks using the defibrillator, continued to do so until after medical crews arrived.

In total, Mr Carter and Mr Bailey provided three shocks using the defibrillator.  

Carl Tibbles and James Carter. (Image: Environment Agency)

His heart was made stable enough for him to be taken to hospital where he was further stabilised. Mr Tibbles has since been discharged from hospital and has returned to work.  

Mr Tibbles has since made a good recovery and has returned to work, and recently met up with the staff, police officers and clinicians that helped save his life.

On March 11, all three men were reunited with responders from Suffolk police and the East of England Ambulance Service and were presented with their resuscitation award certificates.   

Mr Tibbles said: “Myself, my wife, and family will be forever in Matt, James, and the emergency services’ debt for saving my life on the November 3, 2023. I will never be able to thank them enough for what they did on that day. 

“Medical professionals have been amazed at the job Matt did clearly putting excellent first aid training skills to very good use.

“I know Matt doesn’t like a fuss, but both him and James thoroughly deserve the award (and more) as without them I wouldn’t be here.” 

Mr Bailey said: “I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and something just didn’t feel right.

Matthew Bailey, Carl Tibbles, and James Carter with their Royal Human Society award certificates. (Image: Environment Agency)

“My curiosity got the better of me and thank goodness it did. It all happened so fast, I didn’t really think about it and my training just kicked in. 

“Fortunately, I also had James to help me, and I want to express my sincere thanks to him too. He and I made a great team on the day. 

“I’ve been to training sessions with Carl since and it’s been really nice to see him back working.” 

Mr Carter added: “Matthew Bailey is my hero. His clear head and speedy actions certainly made the difference. The training kicked in and we were very fortunate to give Carl a fighting chance.

“Meeting Carl with his wife just a few weeks after was an incredible experience.  

“We also cannot thank the emergency services enough for their rapid response and actions. We were in awe of what they were able to do on site.” 

Matthew Bailey, Carl Tibbles, and James Carter with the ambulance crew who attended on the day (Image: Contributed)

Adam Lunn, incident response coordinator for the Environment Agency, said: “We’re all incredibly proud of the actions both James and Matthew took during Carl’s cardiac arrest.

“Undertaking CPR is something a lot of people are trained to do but few have delivered. Less than 1 in 10 people survive a cardiac arrest. It takes courage to perform CPR and the calm and prompt actions from James and Matthew undoubtedly saved Carl’s life.” 

Leading operations manager at East of England Ambulance Service, Andy Benson, added: “James and Matthew recognised that Mr Tibbles was in cardiac arrest and knew what to do.

"They provided good CPR immediately and used the defibrillator until we came and provided advanced life support.  

“If one of those links in the chain of survival had been missing, it could have impacted on Mr Tibble’s outcome. This highlights the importance of learning CPR and knowing where your community defibrillators are.“