A retired firefighter who suffered a major heart attack while driving on McCarrs Creek Road near Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park recently reunited with the NSW Ambulance crews he credits with saving his life.
Craig Sutton, a former Fire and Rescue NSW firefighter with more than three decades of service, had been photographing in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park on Thursday, 5 February 2026, when he began feeling unwell while walking back from Flint and Steel Beach.
Mr Sutton, who said he was familiar with the Northern Beaches area because his brother lives at Cromer, initially thought he was experiencing indigestion before realising the situation was far more serious.
After pulling over on McCarrs Creek Road and calling Triple Zero, NSW Ambulance dispatchers directed paramedics Thomas Lee and Mia O’Sullivan from Belrose Ambulance Station to the scene.
The pair quickly identified that Mr Sutton was suffering a heart attack and began emergency treatment before transporting him towards Northern Beaches Hospital. An Intensive Care Paramedic joined the crew en route after ECG readings confirmed the severity of the cardiac event.
Paramedics bypassed the hospital’s Emergency Department and took Mr Sutton directly to the cardiac catheterisation laboratory, where he later went into cardiac arrest and was revived.
Paramedic Thomas Lee later said the rapid response time had likely saved Mr Sutton’s life, with the patient reaching the operating table around 40 minutes after the initial emergency call.
Now fully recovered, Mr Sutton reunited with the ambulance call takers, dispatcher and paramedics at Belrose Ambulance Station on Tuesday, 28 April 2026, alongside his son Ryan.
Mr Sutton said he wanted the chance to personally thank the crews involved, noting that during his own 36-year firefighting career he rarely had the opportunity to reconnect with people he had helped rescue.
Paramedic Thomas Lee described the reunion as a special moment and said Mr Sutton was the first patient in several years to specifically request an in-person thank you after recovering.
Published 22-May-2026
