AN elderly man in Horwich was brought back to life after his heart stopped.

Firefighters and paramedics went to the aid of the 96-year-old when he had a heart attack yesterday morning.

The crews were called out by carers from Aspinall Court, a specialist sheltered housing service off Chorley New Round, just before 10am, with firefighters from the Horwich station arriving just as the pensioner took his “last breath”.

Within seconds the team of life-savers started CPR – cardiopulmonary resuscitation – and were quickly joined by North West Ambulance paramedics who administered adrenalin and further CPR to revive the man.

Firefight Steven Waygood said: “He had just taken his last breath seconds before we entered the room.

“CPR was started within 40 to 50 seconds and, working with the paramedics, we got a pulse back and him breathing again within 10 minutes.

“He was brought back to life pretty quickly.

“We don’t normally get that lucky, it is a much better outcome than you would usually expect.

“It was a great job by both the paramedics and the firefighters.”

Following treatment on the scene, the man was taken to hospital by ambulance.