12/01/2020
How remembering the Bee Gees & Vinnie Jones kept a Fife Golfer alive.....
A Fife golfer has told how his life was saved by friends singing the Bee Gees song Staying Alive.
Alan Linton, 42, collapsed from a heart attack as he played golf Charleston Golf Course, near Colinsburgh.
His friends remembered a TV advert, starring Vinnie Jones, which told people to give chest compressions in time to the 70s song.
In the 999 call Mr Linton's friends, Paul Pinkney, can be heard shouting: "I'm doing the staying alive thing."
Mr Linton, who collapsed on 5 February, said: "I feel very lucky and overwhelmed that the song saved my life.
"The song is the reason I'm alive because they used that beat so it's a major contribution to why I'm here."
'Felt dizzy'
Mr Linton had gone out golfing as part of a four-ball will friends Brian Enderson, Michael Rennie and Paul Pinkney.
He suddenly took ill on the sixth green.
He said: "I was walking back to my golf bag and I was feeling a bit dizzy and I got to my bag and went down onto my hunkers and I saw bubbles.
"And according to Brian Henderson when I went down on my hunkers I just carried on, onto my back - and that's as much as I know."
Initially, his friends thought he was joking, even giving him a playful kick.
Mr Rennie said: "When he actually fell over we thought he was messing about because of the way he went down. And Brian went over to give him a kick to get up and that's when we realised it was a lot more serous."
The group then leapt into action, with Mr Enderson phoning an ambulance and Mr Pinkney starting CPR using advice from the advert.
Three weeks
Mr Pinkney said: "The ad had been on the week before, it had been on a couple of times. If it hadn't have been for Vinnie Jones you'd have looked at it and gone 'Yeah, whatever' but because he was doing it it just sticks in your head.
"It came straight to us. I was playing the whole thing in my head. We sang it out loud for a bit. It obviously works."
Mr Linton was airlifted to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee where he remained for three weeks.
He thanked his friends, paramedics and call handler for saving his life.
Alan McIntyre was one of the paramedics who raced to the scene. He said: "We know from evidence that the quicker you do something the better the outcome.
"Vinnie Jones on one prime time advert got the message across to these guys about the benefit of quick actions."
"The sterling work that these guys did made our jobs all the more worthwhile. The guys were all rallying round.
"The hairs on the back of my neck were standing up and it was quite an emotional event."
Here’s the advert if any of you missed it
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O92KL1mw77c
