Team GB doctors save life of Uzbekistan boxing coach who suffered cardiac arrest at Paris Olympics

Two members of Team GB’s medical team have emerged as heroes after saving the life of the head coach of the Uzbekistan boxing team.

Tulkin Kilichev was celebrating the gold medal won by boxer Hasanboy Dusmatov at the Paris Olympics when he suffered a cardiac arrest.

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Situated in the warm up area at Roland Garros, Kilichev was near GB Boxing doctor Harj Singh and physio Robbie Lillis, who leapt into action.

With Singh performing CPR and Lillis using a defibrillator, they were able to save his life.

They then passed over responsibility to the trained medical team at Roland Garros who arranged for him to head to hospital where he’s now understood to be in a stable condition.

Lillis said: “The (Uzbek) coaching team came back into the warm-up area and they were all celebrating, and then shouting came from that area that wasn’t celebrations at all.

“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.

“When I arrived about 30 seconds after Harj, he had already started performing CPR on the coach. 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.

“I opened up the trauma bag, got the defib out, got the pads on him as quickly as possibly. Once that analysed his heart rhythm, it said a shock was advised so we cleared everybody away and gave him a shock.

“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.”

Lillis added: “Hopefully he does make a full recovery.

“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.

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“It’s definitely not my day-to-day job, and I wouldn’t like to make a routine of doing it, but thankfully having had the training I was able to carry that out.”

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