A SWIMMER has been taken to hospital after having a cardiac arrest at West Wickham Leisure Centre.

Emergency services, including the air ambulance, were called to the scene in Station Road, West Wickham, at 11:10am and carried out CPR on the man in the pool area.

Duty Officer Bill Kelly, who treated the patient, said: "The patient, a man in his 60s, had a cardiac arrest while swimming.

"The lifeguards quickly pulled him out of the water and started good quality CPR giving him the best chance of survival.

"We used a defibrillator to shock the patient's heart and to restart it, and by the time he arrived at King's College Hospital, he was conscious and talking.

"He was taken to the specialist heart unit at King's as his cardiac arrest seemed to have been caused by a heart attack."

The incident comes the day after a fundraising drive at the leisure centre to raise money for a defibrillator.

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