A MEMBER of the public successfully used a defibrillator to treat a man in cardiac arrest.

The East of England Ambulance Service received a call at 8.48pm last night to the Tesco store in Coggeshall Road, Braintree, to a report of a man who was not breathing.

An ambulance crew, rapid response vehicle, community first responder and East Anglian Air Ambulance were dispatched to the scene.

The 999 call handler gave CPR instructions, including advising a bystander to retrieve a defibrillator, which they fetched and successfully used to administer a shock before the ambulance arrived. 

They treated a man, believed to be in his late 50s, who was in cardiac arrest.

Following treatment at the scene, they managed to resuscitate the patient who was taken by land ambulance to Basildon and Thurrock Hospital in a critical condition.