A man who had a heart attack at the wheel says his sons would have been left without a dad if it wasn’t for the fast actions of a Good Samaritan.

Glenn Smith crashed his car through railings and into a tree on a busy roundabout after losing consciousness.

The 58-year-old, from Maidstone, had been driving home from lunch with his mum, with his 18-year-old son Ethan, when he suddenly became unwell.

His sudden medical episode resulted in his car “ploughing” off the road at the junction of Sandling Road and Lower Boxley Road, in Maidstone, on June 15.

Lena Dalton, a 29-year-old chemotherapy nurse, witnessed the accident while in the passenger seat with her partner Charlie Simpson, who was driving.

The couple, from Whitstable, had been in Rochester looking at boats to buy, before popping along to the County Town to visit a piercing shop.

Lena said: “We’d just left the town centre, Charlie was driving, and we saw a car just stopped on the roundabout, where it shouldn’t have been, just in front of us.

“At first we questioned what the driver was doing but then it just ploughed into the tree and fence.

“We believed the driver’s foot went onto the accelerator by accident.”

As soon as the pair saw the incident unfold they drove over to the scene, parked up and went to see how they could help.

Lena, who is soon to be a blood cancer specialist nurse in Canterbury, continued: “Glenn’s son was in shock in the passenger seat and kept talking about his dad.

“I opened the driver's door and checked for Glenn’s pulse but he didn’t have one and he wasn’t breathing.”

“Glenn can’t remember much but he knows he owes Lena his life…”

Being fully CPR-qualified, Lena shouted for onlookers to call 999 before Charlie helped remove Glenn from the car so she could begin chest compressions.

Charlie, also 29, said: “As Lena began, people nearby began saying that the man shouldn’t have been moved in case he’d broken his neck or had suffered any other serious injuries.

“However, Lena knew the fact he had no pulse and wasn’t breathing was far more worrying.”

Lena explained that at one point it appeared that Glenn was breathing again and she was told by onlookers to stop CPR.

But she said Glenn’s body was only mimicking breathing and if she had stopped he still would have had no pulse.

About five minutes later an off-duty paramedic pulled up and asked Lena if she could fit a breathing tube - she could due to her medical training.

She said: “I counted Charlie in to take over the chest compressions and fitted him with the breathing tube while the off-duty paramedic prepared his equipment and sorted an oxygen mask out.”

Charlie, who works for Jewson builders' merchants in Faversham, explained that Glenn still wasn’t breathing by himself when the ambulance arrived after 15 minutes.

Lena recalled: “Paramedics had to shock his heart twice before loading him onto the ambulance and taking him to the William and Harvey Hospital in Ashford.

“They told us that if we didn’t start CPR straight away the man probably wouldn’t have survived.”

It is understood that Glenn, who works as a custodial manager, likely had a heart attack, which is when an artery is blocked, at the wheel.

This then progressed into a cardiac arrest which meant his heart stopped completely.

Charlie said: “Neither of us had done CPR on a person before, all of Lena’s training had just been on a mannequin.”

Lena added: “I just responded on instinct immediately.

“There is a less than 10% survival rate for those who have a cardiac arrest outside of hospital.

“My CPR meant that Glenn got oxygen to his brain and it gave him a pulse the paramedics were able to shock.

“I’d also only ever fitted a mannequin with a breathing tube but I didn’t even think about it, I just went straight into autopilot.”

Charlie said that Glenn was “gone” for almost half an hour and “is lucky not to have brain damage”.

Since the incident, Lena and Charlie have kept in touch with Glenn and his family - who have sent the couple flowers as a thank you.

The mother of Glenn’s children, Julie, explained that he can’t remember much of the accident.

“I didn’t even think about it, I just went straight into autopilot…”

The 53-year-old said: “Lena was so caring all the way through.

“Not just with Glenn but also with his mum and his boys.

“Ethan rang his brother, Curtis, who is 18, who came to the scene and she spoke with them the whole time. She is such a caring person.

“Ethan had been chatting with Glenn when he suddenly slumped forward when they were driving on the roundabout.

“Ethan went to get out of the car to walk around and check on his dad when it started moving forward and crashed.”

Julie explained how just moments before Glenn had been driving on a motorway - she dreads to think how differently the outcome could have been.

She added: “Glenn can’t remember much but he knows he owes Lena his life. Because of her, his sons still have their dad.”

Glenn went into cardiac arrest three times that day. After arriving at the hospital he was put on a ventilation machine and put in the ICU (intensive care unit).

The dad-of-two is still in hospital and is being monitored, however, he is on the mend and recovering well.

Julie added: “His right artery was blocked and he showed no warning of the attack when it happened.

“The fact that Lena was there and she was able to do CPR meant there was a very different outcome and his boys haven’t been left traumatised. People need to be aware of how important knowing these life-saving skills are. She was strong, determined and she knew what she was doing.”

“Because of her, his sons still have their dad…”

Charlie echoed Julie’s words. He said: “This is why CPR should be taught in schools. All of our friends, who are around the same age as us, that we’ve told about what happened said that if they were in our situation they wouldn’t know what to do.

“It is like how people thought he was breathing when he wasn’t. If someone did the CPR and didn’t know about mimic breathing they would have stopped and he would have lost his life.”

To learn CPR or to learn how to save a life click here to visit the British Heart Foundation website.

Charlie added: “This is something everyone should know.”