Quick-thinking engineers save customer's life

Two Openreach engineers helped save the life of an elderly customer when they arrived to fix a fault on his line and found him struggling to breathe.

The Good Samaritans – Manchester-based Paul Green and Mark Hutton – phoned for an ambulance and stayed with 90-year-old Thomas until he was whisked off to hospital.

“With his phone out of order, Thomas had been unable to call his doctor or the emergency services,” explained Paul.

Once Thomas was safely in the ambulance, the engineers got to work on the line. The circuit fault was compounded by worn internal cabling and an old, permanently wired circular-dial type phone, which was itself faulty.

Mark said: “Paul and I have agreed that we’ll pay for a new phone for Thomas ourselves, and then – when we can regain access – install it and renew all the internal wiring.”