Workmen to the rescue, Teesdale Mercury

Workmen to the rescue

May 29, 2002

AN artist who was taken suddenly and violently ill in his isolated studio at the Raby Estate







on Friday lunch-time, has paid tribute to the fast-thinking workmen who came to his aid and the paramedics who got to his side so quickly.



Ben Johnson, a retired art teacher at Staindrop School, thought he was having a heart attack when he staggered out of his studio, deep in the woods at Raby, where he was restoring protective window boards for the 1740 Bath House opposite.

Without a mobile phone, he was helpless but by luck, Phil Rowley and Andy Owens from T Manners and Sons Ltd of Bishop Auckland, were at Bath House, doing plasterwork. They did have a mobile and called an ambulance; Phil went to the castle gatehouse to guide the crew. “They would never have found it,” he said. “I’d only been there a few minutes and there they were.”

Andy stayed with Ben. “He said he wanted to lie on the floor, so I put him in the recovery position and I just talked to him. He seemed to be drifting and I didn’t want him to go unconscious,” said Andy.

Said Ben on Monday: “All I know is I bent over to pick up a particular pen and suddenly I had searing chest pains, my body went numb, and I couldn’t breathe. I thought ‘this is it.’ The pain was so intense. They have told me it was nine minutes absolutely maximum before the paramedics got to me. They were absolutely marvellous at the hospital and the paramedics were wonderful, first class, professional and very kind.”

After an overnight stay at Darlington Hospital, a heart attack was ruled out, but when Ben went in to a violent spasm, his numbness suddenly stopped, so he thinks he had somehow injured his spine.

The incident has shaken him and slowed him down. The Mercury took him back to see the workmen who had helped him, and to see Jim Laurie, the Raby Estate Clerk of Works, who headed up to the cottage when he heard there was trouble, and who rushed Ben’s wife, Lynda, up to the hospital.

“I cannot thank these people enough,” said Ben. “Get a mobile,” Phil and Andy said! “That’s what my family has told me too,” said Ben, with resignation – because until now, he has studiously avoided getting a mobile because he so loves the isolation of his rural retreat.