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TEAM GB medical staff saved a coach’s life after he suffered a cardiac arrest while celebrating a gold medal.
Uzbekistan’s Olympic boxing trainer Tulkin Kilichev collapsed on August 8 at Roland Garros.
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In the men’s 51kg weight category, Uzbek star Hasanboy Dusmatov had just won gold.
The sound of huge celebrations were heard coming from the warm-up area before they swiftly changed to cries for help.
Team GB physiotherapist Robbie Lillis and colleague Dr Harj Singh rushed over to find Kilichev in cardiac arrest.
They performed CPR and used a defibrillator to bring the 41-year-old back to life.
Kilichev was then taken to hospital and he is now believed to be in a stable condition.
Lifting the lid on what happened, Lillis said: “There was a cry for a doctor, for help. Harj was the first person who responded and I followed with the emergency trauma bag that we carry with us.
“Quite a lot of coaches were pretty visibly distressed around the whole situation, so it took us a moment to clear all of them out of the way.
“Initially he didn’t come back but, about 20 to 30 seconds later, after Harj continued doing CPR, all of a sudden he came back conscious with us, which was great.
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“Speed is the essence of it. I’m very, very thankful that we did have all the equipment on us, and myself and Harj being there and being trained.”
It is usually the athletes being Olympic legends – but on his heroic moment as a medic, Lillis added: “My mum said a really nice thing, she said, ‘that’s your Olympic moment.'”
He struggled to sleep the night after the incident but with Kilichev now recovering, both Lillis and Singh want to pay him an “emotional” visit in hospital.
