Birmingham Airport heroes save passenger's life

Above: Kay Hodgkisson Customer Experience and Standards Manager and Stuart Haseley-Nejrup Head of Customer Experience.

The awards ceremony will be held tonight at the Lord Knights Suite, based at Tally Ho in Birmingham to honour their services.

On 13th June 2018, a passenger suffered cardiac arrest at Birmingham Airport and the actions of all four employees resulted in the passenger making a full recovery.

As well as reassuring other passengers in the vicinity, CPR was performed on the patient until the paramedics arrived on site. With their condition stabilised, they were then taken to hospital for necessary monitoring and aftercare. 

Kay Hodgkisson, Customer Experience and Standards Manager at Birmingham Airport, along with Sergeant 3607 Nick Hill, Constable 20508 Adam Beckett and Constable 21491 Stuart Leeding from West Midlands Police, have been invited to the awards ceremony to be formally recognised for their lifesaving efforts.

Kay, who has worked at the airport for a number of years, said: “’No day is ever the same’ couldn’t be a truer statement with my role at Birmingham Airport. Each day you encounter lots of varying, and sometimes challenging situations that take a lot of training and on the job experience to be able to deal with.  

“Receiving a call about a casualty or fatality is probably the one call where you need to think the quickest. Every minute counts and in this particular scenario, our response was immediate. The passenger was found unconscious with a head injury – there was a lot to think about, keeping his family calm, controlling the passenger traffic to resuscitating the passenger, doing all we could until they showed signs of life.

“West Midlands Police did an incredible job, we all worked together faultlessly resulting in the passenger making a full recovery - which is just fantastic. I’m truly honoured to be receiving a Chief Constable’s Award and Royal Humane Society Resuscitation certificate and could not have done it without the support from the Police and the training received for my job.”

Stuart Haseley-Nejrup, Head of Customer Experience commented: “We are all so proud of Kay and the Police Officers for reacting so quickly and calmly.  Situations like this would test anyone, however the team reacted and worked together in an exemplary manner. 

"I am so pleased that the passenger has made a full recovery and how wonderful for Kay and the team to be recognised for this, especially as the ceremony takes place a year to the date!”

At the time of the incident, Kay Hodgkisson was a Passenger Services Manager, having now been promoted to her current role of Customer Experience and Standards Manager.