An ambulance crew who brought a man back from the dead 12 times have received the grateful thanks of his wife - and a big bag of Jaffa cakes.

Keith Rosser from Treharris was given an electric shock 12 times and also treated with a clot-busting injection before being airlifted to Morriston Hospital for emergency surgery.

The 58-year-old director of a building maintenance firm is now recovering at home and wife Susan said: "It's thanks to the ambulance crew that my husband survived." The couple were on a caravan holiday at Lydstep Haven when Keith became ill with chest pains on Saturday morning, September 1.

Susan dialled 999 and within eight minutes the crew of paramedic Gareth Jones and technician Roger Hubbard were on the scene.

She said: "He had a massive heart attack and they had to resuscitate him and shock him 12 times - they worked on him for about 40 minutes to save his life.

"All this time they kept me informed of what they were doing as well as contacting the air ambulance. "The professionalism and expertise of these two men is second to none - they must be the finest in the country."

Gareth admitted: "I've been a paramedic five years and I've never known us have to shock someone 12 times. It's incredible really.

"When we got there he didn't look too bad, a bit grey and sweaty, but once we put the electro- cardiograph on him it told a different story - basically he was having a massive heart attack in front of us.

"By now his wife had begun making her way down the hallway of the caravan towards us and with her husband in this poorly condition I very briefly and calmly told her what was going on and asked her to remain in the front room of the caravan.

"I charged up the defibrillator and we shocked him and his pulse came back, but it was only moments later that it went again and so I charged the defibrillator and gave Keith another shock, once again resulting in a pulse.

"He kept suffering cardiac arrests - it happened about 10 times followed by a pulse.

"We knew it was critical that I had to time the placement of the cannula for the injection just after Keith had received a shock before we were able to thrombolyse him."

Even after the thrombolysing clot-busting injection, Mr. Rosser arrested twice more, with Gareth and Roger shocking him again before he was stable enough to carry into the ambulance.

Gareth added: "Keith was feeling very weary, saying that he felt as though he was drifting in and out of consciousness - what I don't think he appreciated at the time was that he was going unconscious as a result of his heart going into fibrillation."

The air ambulance helicopter landed at 11.40 am and the patient was handed over to Mark Winter and Aneurin Heath, who were the crew that day, but only after Roger had to drive Mr. Rosser half-a-mile to where the helicopter put down.

Gareth explained: "We put Keith onto a stretcher, and loaded him into the helicopter and he was then airlifted to Morriston Hospital where he underwent treatment.

"As the helicopter was lifting off, an overwhelming sense of what had just occurred dawned on me and made me feel immensely proud and somewhat emotional.

"When jobs like this happen, a renewed vigour and enthusiasm courses through you, giving you an enormous feeling of elation which can take a while to come down from."

Along with her thanks, Susan handed over a big bag of Jaffa cakes to the ambulance crew, but even after a stay in Morriston, Keith wasn't completely out of the woods as he had to go back for further treatment after more inflammation of the heart, but he's back at home now.

Keith, who survived a heart attack seven years ago, said: "I didn't know how ill I was, but I feel much better now.

"The ambulance staff were absolutely marvellous. I realised I was having a heart attack, so I told Susan to dial 999 and I'm just glad the boys got there so quickly. "I remember them coming in, but I don't recall much after that, but I'm just so grateful to them. "It's only now that I realise how close I was. I have two grandchildren and my son's wife is expecting their first baby in December and I was actually thinking of that at the time.

"I remember Roger Hubbard saying to me, 'Don't go now, stay with us' and I said, 'Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere,' and I reached up and touched his cheek and said 'Thank you.'"