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Bingo game continued for half an hour as man suffered heart attack

Around 200 people continued to play as the man was given CPR by two nurses

Neela Debnath
Sunday 20 April 2014 13:16 BST
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A game of bingo carried on for 30 minutes even though a man was fighting for his life after suffering from a cardiac arrest.

The man in sixties was at a Mecca Bingo club in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire on Wednesday night when he collapsed.

There were five first-aiders on hand but two nurses, who were also playing bingo, stepped in and attempted to resuscitate him in the hall as they waited for an ambulance to arrive.

One bingo player told The Sun “A man was seemingly dying and people were playing bingo like nothing was happening. The two nurses said the chap had actually ‘died’ twice.”

According to witnesses, the man fell under his table and stopped breathing as callers continued to read out numbers to around 200 players.

A spokeswoman for Mecca Bingo said that the club was following the recommended advice of the emergency services and carried on playing rather than evacuating the hall.

She added they were following advice given to all bingo clubs and said that incidents like this did not happen often. Once the game was finished, the next game was cancelled.

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