Carer at Weldon Homecare Services Ltd, Bingham, saves life of Newark customer

A care worker has been hailed a hero for saving the life of a customer in Newark — but she says she’s just “doing her job”.

Patrycja Hoffman is part of the care team at Weldon Homecare Services Ltd, located in Bingham, which offers a wide range of care services from daily home personal care, overnight care, and domestic services to companion visits across Newark and the surrounding areas.

On Thursday, Pat was visiting a customer at her home in Newark to help get her dressed and washed, when she said she started to feel dizzy.

“She started to fall onto the floor and I caught her, and I could see that she wasn’t breathing and her skin was grey,” Pat recalled.

Pat immediately sprang into action, telling the customer’s husband to call an ambulance and laid the customer on the floor.

The call handler then directed her to start performing CPR on the customer when it was determined that she had suffered a heart attack.

By the time the ambulance arrived, the customer was breathing again and with a pulse when she was taken to Kings Mill Hospital, much to Pat’s relief:

“All I was saying to myself [when I was performing CPR] was ‘please breathe, please breathe’ and I’m so glad she was breathing again,” Pat said.

Weldon Homecare care manager and managing director Michelle Wells had ensured that all staff were trained in first aid, including CPR, bleeding, breathing difficulties, and broken bones, something very important to her as a former paramedic and with 30 years of care experience.

“All of our staff are trained in first aid because you just never know when the need might arise,” she said, “Pat did so well.”

Weldon Homecare director Scott Gordon said that all the team were “so proud” of Patrycja:

“The paramedics report how amazing she was, that she kept very calm and said that she saved the customer’s life.”

The company held its first domiciliary care company Christmas party for carers and customers at the Roman Way pub in Newark on Thursday, just hours after Pat’s life-saving actions, with more than 50 guests attending.

Patrycja was presented with a congratulatory bottle of wine by Michelle at the party, and all of the guests gave her a big cheer and round of applause.

Despite the praise from her bosses and colleagues, Pat said that she doesn’t see herself as a hero:

“I love my job and I was just doing my job,” she said, “I just feel normal, and not special.”