What3Words 'saved life' of Loch Lomond heart attack victim

This app helped save the life of a heart attack victim on Loch Lomond <i>(Image: Kevin Sage)</i>
This app helped save the life of a heart attack victim on Loch Lomond (Image: Kevin Sage)
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A videographer says three words helped save his life when he suffered a heart attack after a Loch Lomond hill walk.

Kevin Sage, who lives in Garelochhead and runs Helensburgh-based video production company Double Polaroid, has credited the app What3Words for assisting paramedics in finding him following the medical emergency earlier this year.

He is continuing his recovery and is now urging residents to have the app on their mobile phones in case the unexpected should ever strike.

Kevin and his wife Esther set out to climb Glen Luss about two weeks before he was to turn 42.

The couple were avid walkers but found it challenging, and they regularly took breaks to slow Kevin's heart rate.

After two hours, they enjoyed the views over Loch Lomond and sent photos to family members.

But as they began their descent, Kevin started to feel faint. As a type two diabetic, they initially wondered if it could be his blood sugar. Esther found some wild berries to try to raise it and they then continued.

But once down the hill and heading on the roughly two miles to their car near the Faerie Trail, it was clear it wasn't diabetes.

Kevin's older brother called, unrelated to anything, but observed from their Glen Luss photos that he wasn't looking right.

"You don't look very good," he said. "And you don't sound very good."

Kevin tried to make a joke but about 10 minutes later, he felt tightness in his chest and what seemed like indigestion. But worse.

Esther considered going to the car or knocking on a door nearby for help.

"I didn't want her to leave me," said Kevin.

With his chest feeling even tighter, theatre scrub nurse Esther started to suspect something serious. She told him to focus on breathing and asked a passer-by if they had aspirin.

She called 999 and the call operator asked if they had What3Words. Esther, 40, did, but with a new phone, hadn't opened it yet.

So Kevin groaned: "I've got it." He handed it to his wife.

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Kevin has since had the three words immortalised into a glass heart (Image: Kevin Sage)

That told the ambulance exactly which three-square-metre patch of the planet the couple were on.

At the Golden Jubilee Hospital, he was taken straight into surgery where his coronary artery was found to be 95 per cent blocked.

Kevin said it is still not known what caused the heart attack. He has a family history of heart disease but he had no previous issues.

Afterwards, his heart was healthy. But physically, the ordeal left him bruised. And there were psychological effects as well after the shock.

The couple have gradually returned to their normal walking distances of about five-seven miles - albeit not on hills.

"I don't want people to think it's a sob story," he said. "It's more about the app.

"Esther and I still talk about it a lot. As the person going through, I think it's harder for the person observing it.

"My family all raced up from Kent. My mum went to Esther first before me - she knew exactly where she would be psychologically. It was probably worse for her than me."

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