01 Jun Day 1: The incident

I live with my best friend (let’s call him Jeff as I won’t be telling you his real name) and girlfriend, we have a lovely home, we all work full time jobs but we always find time to enjoy ourselves. We’ve been looking for quite some time for a bigger place to live, so we all have more space and can comfortably welcome people over (as we are quite social people, if I say so myself!).  

So what happened today?… We’ve all been at work, we’ve just found the perfect house that we all love and are ready to put in the application to rent. Lauren (my girlfriend) and I are heading over to the estate agents to drop our paperwork in, my friend will be doing it tomorrow. 

We’ve just finished at the estate agents and I receive a text message from Jeff’s girlfriend, she’s worried about him, there was something up and he seemed to be acting strangely. I give Jeff a call and ask if he’s alright, he replies with “I’m fine, just chilling at home, really tired.” That doesn’t strike me as acting strange, so Lauren and I just continue driving home, discussing which pub we’ll be going to tonight to celebrate finding our new home with Jeff. 

We’re about 2 miles away from getting home and I receive a call from Jeff’s girlfriend, she’s just received a text reading “You won’t see me again, look after yourself, I love you”, Jeff’s girlfriend is in tears, she’s worried sick and rightly so. I then start to worry, put my foot down and get home as soon as I can. I drop Lauren off at the gate and drive on to park up so she can go to the house and make sure Jeff is alright. 

I get out of the car, run up the path, I can hear Lauren screaming. Shouting Jeff’s name. I get upstairs, run to where I can hear the screaming coming from and see the most horrifying sight of my life. 

Jeff has hanged himself, he’s upright, blue, not breathing and unconscious. My instinct kicks in, quickly untying the cable from his neck, getting him down and beginning what I hoped would be life-saving CPR and mouth to mouth. From what I feel was the longest period of time giving him countless compressions with desperation to get my best friend back. Nothing is working, I’m getting weaker and Jeff still isn’t showing any signs of life. After some amazing instructions from the operator at the emergency control center, Jeff took his first breath, a gasp of air that gave me hope, but he wasn’t waking up. Now, there are bits here that I can’t remember and have completely blanked out, I’m in full fight or flight mode, I’m giving him CPR, I have heartburn from being so out of breath, uncontrollably crying on top of him, shouting at him to wake up. Finally, the paramedics arrive, the amazing medical professionals that I’ve never experienced in an emergency like this before. 

2 Ambulances, 3 First Response Vehicles, 2 Police Cars and an Air Ambulance. The group of people that were working tirelessly to bring my best friend back to life. Jeff is sedated, the doctor has taken control of his breathing and they’re ready to take him to hospital. I’ve done my best, I’ve been told Lauren and I have saved his life, but the journey has only just begun.