A headteacher's heart stopped when he suffered a cardiac arrest in the schoolyard on the final day of term.
Nick Sheeran says he is lucky to be alive after his life was saved by a defibrillator installed at the school when he fell seriously ill at Birkdale Primary School in Southport on July 15 last year.
He has now returned to school seven months on, with pupils erupting into cheers as he walked out into an assembly to welcome him back. Speaking to the ECHO, Mr Sheeran described how he was lucky to still be alive thanks to the vital equipment.
The 55-year-old said: "My son had joined me because it was his last day at high school. One of the parents had donated some balloons as well so I went on the yard with my son to hang up the balloons for the children to say one last goodbye when their parents picked them up at 2pm. The year sixes were in their classrooms and up to 900 parents were outside.
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"Everyone was going to come out and we were going to say one last goodbye. I started to go lightheaded and everything just went black. I was waking up and David Jessop, my deputy who had applied the defibrillator pads to me said 'get down, stay down, don't move'. I felt absolutely fine when I woke up but the pain came later.
"I had chest compressions and had broken a few ribs. Thanks to the clever technology, the defibrillator had picked up that I needed a shock and that's what brought me back."
Nick, who spent 20 years teaching in schools across Liverpool, moved to Birkdale Primary in 2010, with Mark King, of the Oliver King Foundation, reaching out to him in as part of his aim to try and get defibrillators in all schools across the country.
The foundation was started after Liverpool schoolboy Oliver King died when his heart stopped during a swimming lesson in March 2011.
Mark King has since spent the last 11 years getting machines put into schools following the heartbreaking death of his 12-year-old son at King David High School in Childwall. Mr Sheeran is now the 68th person to be saved thanks to a defibrillator provided by the foundation.
Mr Sheeran said: "I got the defibrillator in for the children. Who would have thought it would be me who needed it? I'm very lucky to still be here. It was lovely to be back with the kids.
"I was getting cards and video messages from them. David and Rachel (Ramsden, Mr Sheeran's other deputy) have done an amazing job at the school while I've been away They set up an assembly with Mark (King) last week.
"I could hear them saying to the children how lovely it would be if I was there - then I walked out and they were all cheering."
Now the dad-of-three, who lives in Scarisbrick is calling for defibrillators to be installed in more public places following the announcement that defibrillators will be installed in all state-funded schools by the end of the academic year.
He said: "The campaign now needs to turn to being in public places. No matter how much CPR you do if you don't have a defibrillator you're going to go. A cardiac arrest is an entirely different thing to a heart attack. I'm a healthy man, I don't drink, I don't smoke."
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