{"id":170415,"date":"2025-06-09T14:08:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T14:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/170415\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T14:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T14:08:11","slug":"betfred-punter-dies-at-birmingham-bookies-as-staff-rush-to-save-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/170415\/","title":{"rendered":"Betfred punter ‘dies’ at Birmingham bookies as staff rush to save him"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dave Humphries suffered a heart attack at his local Betfred in Weoley CastleDavid Humphries with the Betfred staff who saved him after he was struck with a severe heart attack at his local bookies(Image: Jon Parker Lee)<\/p>\n

A Birmingham man who momentarily ‘died’ says he left his local bookies with the biggest win of all – his life – thanks to quick-thinking staff.<\/p>\n

Dave Humphries collapsed when he suffered a heart attack at his local Betfred in Weoley Castle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It happened when the 62-year-old hospital domestic was placing his regular 49s numbers and Irish Lotto bets.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Wolverhampton biker rushed to hospital after rush hour crash on Penn Road<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Thankfully Betfred staff Wendy Richards and Teresa Hodges, both 64, acted quickly to save the Selly Oak<\/a> bachelor.<\/p>\n

Wendy, who originally thought Dave was bending over to pick up something he’d dropped, placed him in the recovery position.<\/p>\n

Teresa rang 999 and started shouting instructions from the ambulance operator as Wendy administered CPR.<\/p>\n

Wendy said: “He was making horrible gurgling noises as if he was having a fit.<\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t really know how I managed to do CPR…maybe from some TV programme?Anyway, I didn’t think about it, I just kept on pumping with Teresa telling me what to do.”<\/p>\n

Betfred customers Stephen Riddell and Sofiene Amara also helped stricken Dave as they all waited for an ambulance to arrive.<\/p>\n

Stephen also gave CPR while Sofiene located a defibrillator 500 yards away.<\/p>\n

Dave was eventually rushed to the coronary care unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital<\/a>, where he works.<\/p>\n

He has since made a full recovery following an operation.<\/p>\n

Wendy, Teresa, Stephen and Sofiene will all be honoured by the Royal Humane Society later this month.<\/p>\n

Dave, who has worked for the NHS<\/a> for 11 years, said: “If it wasn’t for Wendy and Teresa I wouldn’t be here…simple as that.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had my ups and downs at Betfred over the years, winning and losing like all customers, but this was my biggest win and I didn’t even put a bet on.<\/p>\n

“When I got to the hospital tests showed one artery was completely blocked and the other 99 per cent blocked. I collapsed again within 24 hours in the hospital unit and they said they had better get on with an operation.”<\/p>\n

Dave, now back in work, says he’s changed his lifestyle with a self-imposed ban on pork pie, pizzas and chips.<\/p>\n

“I had not been ill or anything and had been laughing and joking with Wendy and Teresa when it hit me out of the blue,” he added.<\/p>\n

Grandmother Wendy said: “I felt really emotional at the time but I’m so pleased Dave who is a lovely bloke has pulled through.<\/p>\n

“The police said he’d died two or three times here at Betfred, in the ambulance and then again at the hospital.”<\/p>\n

Teresa, also a grandmother, said: “He was gone and we brought him back then he was fighting and the emergency doctor gave him a sedative. I’m really happy because Dave is such a nice man.”<\/p>\n

Betfred boss Fred Done said: “Wendy and Teresa were truly amazing and I’m delighted their heroic actions have been recognised by the Royal Humane Society. “<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dave Humphries suffered a heart attack at his local Betfred in Weoley CastleDavid Humphries with the Betfred staff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[54241,855,748,393,4884,10844,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-170415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-bartley-green-and-weoley","9":"tag-birmingham","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-selly-oak","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}