Orange City’s Hamson reunited with the CSU students who saved his life

Orange City rugby coach Steve Hamson was an emotional man on Friday as he paid tribute to the Charles Sturt University students who tended to him when he suffered a heart attack just over a month ago.

“A lot of people don’t have the outcome that I had,” he said.

Mr Hamson suffered the heart attack while Orange City was hosting CSU during a Central West Rugby Union round on August 5.

He collapsed during the second grade game after earlier refereeing a colts game.

Paramedic students Andrew Fraser and Jack Keppel and nursing student Emma Curtin, helped by registered nurse Wendy Baker, took control of the scene, performing CPR and using a defibrillator to revive Mr Hamson as they waited for an ambulance.

He was taken to Orange Hospital and had stents placed to open his arteries, but appeared in good health when he met with the students at a morning tea hosted by CSU on Friday morning.

Admitting to being emotional, Mr Hamson said he wanted to thank the students on behalf of “my wife and two kids”.

He said training alone does not guarantee you will be able to react quickly enough “when the situation goes west”, as it did on August 5.

Mr Keppel said he did not initially realise the seriousness of the incident when he saw Mr Hamson collapse.

Though his training kicked in, he said it “felt like an eternity” as he worked on Mr Hamson.

Mr Keppel went on to play in the first grade game for CSU and travelled home to Bathurst with his mate and fellow paramedic student Jayden Bilton.

“He [Mr Keppel] wanted to know if he could have done anything better. I said from someone looking in, you did early CPR, early defibrillation,” Mr Bilton said.

“You have given this guy the best chance of survival.”