A Dundee landlord who revived a man after a suspected overdose has revealed she thought he had died when she found him.
Shona Connolly found the man slumped down the stairs in the communal close on Blackness Road, and said at first she thought he was dead.
She had to call 999 for an ambulance and paramedics talked her through how to do CPR, and now says if no one had come by the man probably would have died.
She said: “He was not moving and I tried to wake him up.
“It was quite scary because I thought he was dead, I had to listen really carefully to find out if he was breathing or not.
“In my job I have had to deal with broken bones, bleeding, anything you can think of, but this was on another level.
“The ambulance people went through the whole thing with me and just as the ambulance arrived he started to move his hands.
“I have never had to do that in my life before.
“When I was doing it I was thinking ‘don’t die on me’.
“The paramedics had to give him an injection and police officers came too because his drugs paraphernalia was on the windowsill.
“If no one had come in I reckon he would not be here – I also wonder if people maybe walked by and left him because he did look like a heroin addict, his legs were on the stairs and his head was on the landing with his neck extended back and his breathing sounded like a death rattle.”
Shona said once the paramedics managed to bring the man around, she confronted him about taking the drugs in a random residential close.
“I was raging at him, I thought he was dead and when I had to make the 999 call I was nearly in tears.
“When he woke up and the ambulance people finished dealing with him I actually said to him ‘how would you feel if you came into your house and found someone on the staircase who had died?’
“I can’t believe this has happened, and I know he will do it again, that is my concern.”
A spokesman for Police Scotland said: “Around 2.10pm on Saturday August 22, officers were called to assist ambulance colleagues following a report of a man taking unwell at a property on Blackness Road, Dundee.
“The man was treated by paramedics at the scene and further enquiries into the matter are ongoing.”
The Scottish Ambulance Service was approached for comment.
