Man remains at Gorleston hospital after ferry heart attack

Events began to unfold shortly before midnight on Thursday evening, around three hours after the P&O ferry left Hull bound for Rotterdam.

The 70-year-old victim, whose family have asked not to be named, was travelling back to the Netherlands with a friend following a week-long break in the UK.

At about 11pm, after eating, he started to feel unwell. From then, his condition quickly deteriorated.

He was rushed to the ferry's emergency room where he fell in and out of consciousness and went into cardiac arrest.

A HM Coastguard helicopter was called to help a man who suffered a heart attack on a P&O ferry. Pictured is a previous rescue. (Image: Newsquest)

He had to be revived three times - twice manually and once with a defibrillator - with help from a Polish doctor, who was onboard as a passenger, and P&O staff.

Then, in the early hours of Friday morning, the Coastguard helicopter, from Humberside, flew out to airlift the man who was in a "very bad state" to the James Paget Hospital in Gorleston, where he remains. 

The man's son, who also does not wish to be named, said: "The heroic handling from everyone involved saved my father's life and they deserve recognition for that.

"My dad and our family want to thank the P&O crew, the doctor, the coastguard and his friend."

At the hospital, the man was put in intensive care (ICU) for a short period, but he is now stable and his heart is being monitored.

His wife and son have since travelled from the Netherlands to Norfolk to be by his side.

They drove to Calais to get a ferry and arrived in Gorleston at about 9pm on Friday night (December 7).

His son added: "He is getting better but he will still need some operations.

"You can't get him down though. He is already joking around and making friends with the doctors and nurses.

"We are staying in a nearby hotel in Gorleston but we don't know when he will be able to travel.

"We might be here for another week."