Soaper hero: Actress Danniella Westbrook saves man's life after he collapses on pavement

Soaper hero: Actress Danniella Westbrook saves man's life after he collapses on pavement

 

Recovery position: Caring Danniella springs to help man

Quick-thinking soap star Danniella Westbrook has saved a man who collapsed in the street.

Soap star Danniella put him in the recovery position, cleared his airways and called 999.

Onlookers hailed the former EastEnders actress as a hero and say without her speedy intervention the 51-year-old man could easily have died.

Modest Danniella, 39, told the Mirror yesterday: “It’s flattering if people are calling me a hero but I don’t want to make too much of a fuss.

"I was just doing my bit and would help anyone else in the same situation.

“It all happened so quickly and was scary but I tried to keep my cool until the arrival of the emergency services who were brilliant.”

Daniella Westbrook hailed a hero after saving a man's life who collapsed in the street

A witness said Danniella, who has just joined Hollyoaks, “sprang into action and calmly took control” when she saw the man slumped on the pavement at night.

One onlooker said: “There is no doubt that without Danniella’s quick thinking things could have been much worse.

"She was every inch a hero as she whipped off her jacket and covered him up to keep him warm in the freezing cold.

“She also asked a passer-by for their coat, checked the chap’s airways, put him in the recovery position, and managed to keep him conscious until paramedics arrived.”

Mum-of-two Danniella had been out for dinner with friends and husband Kevin Jenkins when she saw the collapsed man outside the restaurant in London’s West End.

Help arrives: Ambulance crew takes over

A source close to Danniella said: “She was having supper and a few drinks but left early because she had quite a busy time planned with the kids.

"She’s glad she was in the right place at the right time.”

A London Ambulance Service spokesman said two crews were sent to the scene in Soho on Friday night and the man was treated at St Thomas’ Hospital in South London.

Danniella was having dinner to celebrate her first month of filming on the Channel 4 soap. Her first scenes will be screened soon.

She played fiery Sam Mitchell in EastEnders on and off from 1990 until 2010.

Danniella, who kicked her near-fatal cocaine habit 12 years ago, is said to be “excited” about her soap comeback.

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Stars who have shined in a real-life drama

CARING Danniella is not the only star who has shown she can handle a real-life drama.

Titanic star Kate Winslet, 37, carried Sir Richard Branson’s mum Eve, 90, out of his burning home on Necker island after it was hit by lightning in 2011.

Last year Rain Man star Dustin Hoffman called 999 and saved the life of a jogger in Hyde Park who had collapsed with a heart attack.

In New York in the same year Drive star Ryan Gosling stopped a cab hitting journalist Laurie Penny by pushing her clear.

Harrison Ford used his flying skills to find a Scout lost in a forest in Wyoming, US, in 2001.

And actress Demi Moore contacted the police in 2009 and saved a woman who threatened suicide on Twitter.