Team GB medics were unexpectedly called into action on Thursday night to save the life of another nation's coach.
On Thursday Uzbekistan won its third gold medal of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games when boxer Hasanboy Dusmatov triumphed in the men's flyweight gold medal bout.
However, things took a turn when the Uzbekistan boxing team's head coach Tulkin Kilichev suffered a cardiac arrest while celebrating the victory in the warm-up area at Roland Garos.
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Thankfully Kilichev was saved by the quick-thinking of Team GB doctor Harj Singh and physio Robbie Lillis, who were also in the warm-up area at the time.
The duo rushed to Kilichev's aid with Singh performing CPR and Lillis using a defibrillator.
Lillis said: “The [Uzbek] coaching team came back into the warm-up area and they were all celebrating, and then shouting came from that area that wasn’t celebrations at all.
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"There was a cry for a doctor, for help. Harj was the first person who responded and I followed with the emergency trauma bag that we carry with us.
“When I arrived about 30 seconds after Harj, he had already started performing CPR on the coach. Quite a lot of coaches were pretty visibly distressed around the whole situation, so it took us a moment to clear all of them out of the way.
"I opened up the trauma bag, got the defib out, got the pads on him as quickly as possibly. Once that analysed his heart rhythm, it said a shock was advised so we cleared everybody away and gave him a shock.
“Initially he didn’t come back but, about 20 to 30 seconds later, after Harj continued doing CPR, all of a sudden he came back conscious with us, which was great.”
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Kilichev was taken to hospital, where he is understood to be in a stable condition.
Team GB medical staff regular complete training at the UK Sports Institute, including a pitch-side trauma course to prepare them for these kind of situations.
Alex Brotherton