Former England and Manchester City defender Stuart Pearce suffered a medical emergency while on a flight from Las Vegas to London and he has now been reunited with a member of the flight’s cabin crew
England football legend Stuart Pearce has been reunited with a cabin crew member that helped save his life after he fell ill while flying home from Las Vegas. Pearce had been in Vegas to watch the Super League clash between Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves, with the 62-year-old a fan of the latter.
However, he experienced a medical emergency while on board the flight and the plane was diverted to Canada so he could receive treatment in hospital. Pearce later revealed that doctors had to restart his heart in order to get his heart rate down.
Opening up about his health scare in an appearance on This Morning alongside his wife Carol, Pearce said: “At the airport my chest felt tight, a little bit heavy. I thought it might be indigestion or something of that nature, I got on the plane and it felt as though someone was sort of sat on my chest.
“So after a couple of hours, I tried to sleep it off to be honest, and I should have picked my wording slightly better, I said to Carol, I said, ‘I don’t think I’m going to make Heathrow’ [but] I meant without telling the air crew!
“My resting heart rate was 155 upwards… It was as though, when you did breathe in, it wasn’t sufficient for the demand.”
Carol then added: “For him to say he’s in pain, that immediately made my blood run cold, because you think, ‘Okay, this is, this is serious’. Stuart doesn’t do being ill, he doesn’t do making a fuss.
“He played with a broken leg! So, I knew it was serious when he said to me, ‘I’m not going to make Heathrow’.”
Pearce also paid tribute to cabin crew for their response to the incident and Zoe Anderson, who was among those on board when he fell ill, made a surprise appearance. “They were magnificent on Virgin,” Pearce said.
“I’ve got to say, one of the stewardesses came and sat next to me and went through the procedure they’ve been trained [for]. We travel a lot, so going forward, it really puts my mind at ease. If you are travelling, you’re in really good hands, even if you’re up in the air.”
Zoe added: “[Stuart] said your pain was about eight out of ten, which started to raise some alarm bells so we needed to act on that. We had Stuart hooked up to an ECG monitor… So we were able to send that straight down to the doctor that I was speaking to.
“We had all of that information to relay back and forth, we did a few different readings and when they said that all of them were abnormal, we made the decision that we didn’t want to be half way across the Atlantic [Ocean].”
Pearce then offered his heartfelt thanks to Zoe and the rest of the crew, stating: “The professionalism that you showed on the day was brilliant. I was reasonably calm I’m sure but if you’ve got passengers that are very nervous, and this sort of thing happens, that level of composure and the backup of the training as well…
“You said, ‘No it’s ok’. You fully assured me, ‘We’ve been trained at this, it’s not a problem’. Credit to [them.]”
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV, ITVX, STV and STV Player To see the show in full visit itv.com/watch/this-morning
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