Stuart Pearce praises Banff Virgin Atlantic cabin crew member on ITV’s This Morning
A cabin crew member from Banff has saved the life of a “true legend” of football, after his “heart went into overdrive” during a flight.
Ex-Nottingham Forest and England international Stuart Pearce was flying home from Las Vegas in February, when he suffered a medical emergency.
Stuart was interviewed on ITV’s This Morning programme earlier today and had a shock reunion with Zoe Anderson.
Zoe, from Banff, was the Virgin Atlantic onboard manager who looked after the footballing legend.
She helped determine that the plane should make an emergency landing in Newfoundland, Canada, so the passenger could receive life-saving treatment.
Stuart described the terrifying ordeal to presenters Ben Sherphard and Cat Deeley, which would see his resting heart rate top 150 beats-per-minute before he was hospitalised.
“At the airport, my chest felt a little bit tight, a little bit heavy,” he said.
“I thought it may be a bit of indigestion or something of that nature.
“It felt as though something was sat on my chest.”
After making an attempt to “sleep it off”, Stuart said something which caused his wife Carol to become very concerned.
Stuart said: “After a couple of hours, and I should have picked my wording slightly better, I said to Carol: ‘I don't think I'm going to make Heathrow.’
“I meant without telling the aircrew - Carol thought: ‘He's pegged it. He's done!’
Carol said the remark by her husband - who was nicknamed Psycho during his playing career - made her “blood run cold” because Stuart does not normally show pain.
“For him to say he's in pain, that immediately made my blood run cold because you think, okay, this is serious,” Carol said.
“Because Stuart doesn't do being ill.
“He doesn't do pain - he played with a broken leg.”
However, after Carol spoke to the crew, Zoe came and sat with the former footballer, moved him to the front of the plane, and hooked him up to an ECG machine.
During the incident, cabin crew quickly contacted a doctor on the ground who advised them based on the readings they were reporting.
“We go through quite extensive training, o when things like this happen we're prepared to deal with it.” she said.
“So when Carol initially came and spoke to me, I sat down with Stuart and did the initial assessment.
“After talking to Stuart and knowing some of your symptoms - I think you said your pain was about eight out of ten - it started to raise some alarm bells.
“So we thought we needed to act on that.”
After passing Stuart’s readings to doctors, the team decided to make an emergency landing in -11°C Newfoundland.
“When they said that all of them were abnormal, we made the decision that we didn't want to be halfway across the Atlantic,” Zoe added.
“It was a team effort to make sure that Stuart, first and foremost, was being looked after.
“But the crew all worked together to make sure that everybody was calm and no one was worrying.”
The footballer later received treatment at a Canadian hospital, where he witnessed a one-minute silence for himself while watching a match between Nottingham Forest and Manchester City.
He praised Zoe, and the entire cabin crew, for their “incredible” care.
“It was quite incredible, honestly,” Stuart said.
“I always felt as though if you get ill on an aeroplane, worst place in the world to be ill, you know?
“But it sort of gave me a new-found rest-assuredness, if you like.
“So going forward, it really put my mind at ease.
“If you are traveling, you're in really good hands, even if you're up in the air.
“We can only, as a pair, say thank you very much.
“The professionalism that you showed on the day was brilliant.”
