PARAMEDICS have been praised by a Deputy Lieutenant of Kent for saving his life.

Lord Astor of Hever suffered a heart attack at his Westerham home on New Year’s Day.

Paramedics Kevin Cover and Howard Newlan, both based in Surrey, were called to the Conservative peer’s home after he complained of experiencing prolonged chest pain.

Lord Astor, 61, Shadow Defence Minister, said: “I thought it was indigestion. However, the pain didn’t go away and I started feeling more unwell. Realising this was something more serious, I called an ambulance.

“I remember feeling enormously relieved when they arrived. Straight away their consummate professionalism inspired a lot of confidence.”

While the paramedics were treating Lord Astor, he suffered a heart attack and stopped breathing.

The paramedics shocked his heart using a defibrillator before giving him clot busting drugs which are used to dissolve blockages in blood vessels.

Known as thrombolysis, this treatment has been given by paramedics to heart attack patients since 2003 and means they are able to provide life-saving treatment at the scene of the incident.

This was the first time that either of the paramedics had given this treatment.

Lord Astor, who is married with four daughters and a son, publicly thank the pair at the South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Trust’s Surrey 999 call centre in Banstead on Tuesday.

He said: “They saved my life and I am very grateful to them. ”