Man who crashed car into lamppost near Elgin shop after suffering heart attack saved by RNLI volunteer

A RNLI volunteer helped save a driver’s life after he suffered a heart attack and crashed a car outside a shop in Moray.

James Granitza, manager of the floor studio in Elgin and part of the voluntary crew at Buckie RNLI, sprung into action after the car crashed into a lamppost on July 24.

Noticing the driver had pale skin and blue lips, James and two bystanders – who happened to be nurses – pulled him from the crashed vehicle and started to perform CPR.

He then ran to get a Public Accessible Defibrillator (PAD) mounted on a nearby shop, before administering a shock to save the man’s life.

James, who joined the Buckie RNLI Lifeboat Station as a volunteer crew member in 2022 and has been a Scottish Ambulance Service Wildcat Cardiac Responder since 2017, said his reaction on the day was “second nature”.

“Having been a cardiac responder for the Scottish Ambulance Service for the past seven years meant that reacting to the accident was like second nature, I just didn’t have to think about it, I just knew what to do”, he said.

“In all the years I have been volunteering for the coastguards, RNLI and Wildcats I have never seen such an amazing outcome from something that could have so easily been a tragic loss of life. The man was up and about and talking to his family on the phone only minutes after his cardiac arrest, just incredible.”

“Our Wildcat Cardiac Responders are soon to be trained as Community First Responders once we have raised the funds we need to establish the Buckie scheme, and I hope to be able to continue to help the community and save many more lives.”

Anne Scott, lifeboat operations manager at Buckie RNLI says: ‘We are all incredibly proud of James here at Buckie RNLI.

“His commitment to volunteering not just for the RNLI but also as a Community First Responder is inspiring, showing his dedication to saving lives.”