Hornchurch woman asks: “why didn’t anyone help me when I had a heart attack?”

Jackie Chambers from Victor Walk, Hornchurch, had to struggle on her own after she suffered a major heart attack on Monday.

She said: “All I remember is that I was on the ground crawling and staggering all over the place – but I think that it is disgusting that not one person stopped to help me.”

The 54-year-old was on her way to work at Westlands Cafe in Westlands Avenue, Hornchurch, at 6.45am when she started to feel unwell.

The pain became so unbearable that she remembers collapsing in Sainsbury’s car park in High Street, Hornchurch.

Somehow she picked herself up and started crawling along the road.

She said: “I don’t know how I did it but I could see my whole life flash before me.

“There weren’t many people on the road but I could see some cars going past and, because of how I was crawling and wobbling, I think they thought I was drunk.”

Arteries

Jackie managed to crawl along until she reached the cafe where she collapsed at the door.

Surprisingly Jackie says that she managed to pick herself up and crawled to the building next door before collapsing again.

Luckily someone heard her fall and opened the door and called for an ambulance.

Jackie said: “I think she saved my life. If she wasn’t there I don’t know what would have happened.

“I still don’t know how I did it but all I could think about was my daughter who is seven months’ pregnant and wondering if I was going to be able to see my second grandchild.”

Jackie was taken by ambulance to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel.

She was released from hospital on Wednesday and was told that she had suffered a major heart attack.

One of her arteries was completely blocked.

She said: “I am really lucky to be alive because the doctors have said it was a major heart attack and I could have been killed.

“I am going to probably be on medication for the rest of my life – but at least I am alive.”