Aston Academy: Hero PE teacher saves life of Sheffield boy in cardiac arrest at school

Aston Academy teacher Joel Allan revived Elliot Norton, who lives in Beighton in Sheffield, when the then 15-year-old collapsed as he watched a football training session on the school field in Rotherham.

Mr Allan, 42, from Chesterfield, Derbyshire, revived Elliot by using CPR.

The married dad-of-two is now backing the British Heart Foundation’s ‘Heart Month’ campaign for as many people as possible to learn CPR using the charity’s innovative tool RevivR.  

RevivR teaches how to recognise a cardiac arrest, stimulates a 999 call, gives feedback on chest compressions and outlines the correct steps to take when using a defibrillator, giving people the confidence to help in the ultimate medical emergency.  

Talking about the day he saved Elliot’s life in October 2021, Mr Allan said he had been doing some football training with a Year 11 class when he noticed that Elliot, who was watching, had collapsed.

“I looked for a pulse but couldn’t find one so immediately started doing CPR,” said the teacher, who had been trained in CPR as the coach of his older son’s grassroots football team.

“I didn’t have my phone with me but some of the lads ran to the PE office for help,” he recalled.

Mr Allan said he performed CPR on Elliott for about five minutes until a school nurse brought a defibrillator. They delivered three shocks and carried on performing CPR, before paramedics arrived and took over.

Elliott was taken to Rotherham Hospital and later moved to Leeds Hospital, where he stayed for three weeks and had an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), fitted help manage any potentially life-threatening heart rhythms.

Three months after his collapse, Elliott was back at school.

“I remember the first time I saw him was at a virtual parent’s evening,” said Mr Allan. “The doctors had told him that I’d saved his life.

“What happened really brought home to me the importance of CPR training. You never know when you might have to help save someone’s life. I think everyone should do it – so they know what to look for and how to help.

“You never think you’ll be in that situation but it can happen to anyone at any time.”

Elliott’s mother, Jessica Norton-Armitage, said her son, now 16 is now under the care of cardiologists who said they believed he may have Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy - a rare disease which can make your heart muscle weak and can increase your chances of life-threatening abnormal heart rhythms.

But she also said he was doing well.

He has since left Aston Academy and is now doing an apprenticeship in joinery at a local college.

She said she didn’t believe Elliott would be alive today if it wasn’t for his teacher’s rapid actions.

“If Joel hadn’t have acted so quickly and done CPR I have no doubt that Elliott wouldn’t be here right now,” she said.

“It absolutely highlights how important the skill of doing CPR is because he helped to save Elliott’s life, I have no doubt about that.”

Dr Charmaine Griffiths, Chief Executive of the British Heart Foundation, said: “Every second counts when someone has a cardiac arrest, and knowing CPR could be the difference between life and death. A cardiac arrest can

happen to anyone at any time - it could be your partner, your mum or dad or your child. 

“It only takes 15 minutes to learn with RevivR – that’s a coffee break, half time in the football or the time you might spend scrolling through social media. I urge you do it today, as it could be the most important lesson you ever learn.”