Local hero saves Leicester woman's life

Irfan Motala from DrugMart pharmacy, Spotland Road

A local pharmacist has saved a woman’s life by provided emergency aid when a young woman who was waiting for a prescription collapsed in front of him.

Along with his DrugMart pharmacy on Spotland Road in Rochdale, Irfan Motala owns the Sheridan Pharmacy in Leicester, which is where the incident happened on 6 May.

The victim of the anaphylactic attack was Nusrat Patel who went to the pharmacy when she started to feel unwell after eating sunflower seeds.

Mr Motala recognised the life threatening reaction and injected Mrs Patel with an ‘EpiPen’- a self-injectable device that administers the drug Epinephrine into the system to counteract allergic reactions.

Mr Motala explained: “At 2.15pm the young girl, Nusrat Patel, came into the store with her husband because she had had a reaction to some sunflower seeds. Her throat was swelling then she stopped breathing and collapsed.

“I knew immediately that it was an anaphylactic attack and so injected her with the EpiPen and immediately asked my colleague to call the ambulance.”

Mrs Patel knew of her allergies but did not know that the biscuit she had eaten prior to the attack contained sunflower seeds. When she realised she had had the reaction she was taken to the health centre by her husband and it was whilst waiting there in the pharmacy that the severity of the reaction kicked in and caused the young lady to collapse.

Mr Motala said: “Luckily the pharmacy is part of the health centre here because it can take only 15 minutes for an anaphylactic attack to become fatal, but she was able to be treated very quickly.”

It is thanks to Mr Motala’s quick thinking and professional knowledge that Mrs Patel returned to full health shortly after the incident.