Search for life-saving stranger after cardiac arrest

"This fella Mark, I owe him so much. Just a simple handshake to say thank you."

Gerry Reside shows off his scar after he was revived from a heart attack at the rear of the Grafton PO Hotel. He is looking for 'Dave', who gave him CPR and saved his life. Picture: Adam Hourigan

IF IT wasn't for a stranger acting quickly, a simple trip to the post office would have been this Grafton man's last.

Two weeks ago Grafton Post Office Hotel manager Gerry Reside was at work and planning lunch with his partner when he felt a pain in his chest.

Brushing it off as "really bad angina" he relieved some of the pain by using his glyceryl trinitrate spray and went and posted a letter.

But when Mr Reside got back to the hotel car park he was suddenly overcome.

"I just wasn't feeling right and I put my hand on the gate at the back of the hotel," he said. "Then I went blind, deaf and died."

Gerry Reside shows off his scar after he was revived from a heart attack at the rear of the Grafton PO Hotel. He is looking for 'Dave', who gave him CPR and saved his life. Picture: Adam Hourigan

But a quick thinking stranger who Gerry only knew as 'Mark' started performing CPR on the hotel manager, who lay motionless.

For "10-15 minutes" he performed CPR before the ambulance arrived on the scene and used a defibrillator on Mr Reside.

"I am so grateful to the fella that saved my life, if it wasn't for him I'd be dead," he said.

"I am a grandfather and a father and they are all grateful."

While so far his attempts to contact the man had been fruitless, Mr Reside said the he would be be forever indebted to him.

"I just want to be able to shake the guy's hand and say 'Well done mate'," he said.

"This fella Mark, I owe him so much. Just a simple handshake to say thank you."

Mr Reside admitted the event had left a serious mark and said it was hard to listen to his partner and friends recount what happened that day.

"Just to hear it brought tears to my eyes. We all see it on TV but you don't think it would happen to you," he said.

"People think a heart attack and cardiac arrest are the same thing but they are not. Cardiac arrest is completely different. I never thought I was actually going to die."

Mr Reside said the traditional Aussie bloke in him had led him to avoid visiting the doctor and shrug off the chest pain before his cardiac arrest.

But his attitude had now changed and he urged other men to take their health seriously.

"Grafton is full of very hard men and I don't care how hard you are mate, it's not worth dying and leaving your family," he said.

"If I get chest pain I am going to the hospital or doctor straight away.

"Everyone needs to make sure you get checked up."

Originally published as Search for life-saving stranger after cardiac arrest