Exile Jo saves life of driver in bus pile-up

Jo Theaker, aged 38, was in her apartment in Surfer's Paradise, Queensland, when she heard a commotion outside as the bus ran out of control and hit five cars and two industrial-sized bins, leaving a 100 metre trail of destruction .

Using her eight years of experience working for South Yorkshire Ambulance Service, Jo ran out and offered to help when she saw the 74-year-old driver being carried off the bus.

She helped an off-duty ambulance worker give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and chest compression, while waiting for paramedics to arrive at the crash scene.

"I heard these bangs, one after the other," Jo said.

"I said 'is he all right?' and someone said 'no, he's not breathing'.

"You just go into a mode. You could see him turning blue. At one point we did think that he was breathing but when we checked he started turning blue again.

"We had about five different people doing compressions."

Brett Ferguson, an ambulance worker sent to the scene, said Jo's actions helped save the driver's life.

"His heart was stopped and now it's going," he said.

Jo, from Lowedges, emigrated to Australia in February after leaving her job transporting patients to the Northern General Hospital.

She is waiting for her work visa to come through before starting a new job as a carer visiting people in their homes after they have been discharged from hospital.

Her parents, Mick, aged 65, and Ann, 63, from Lowedges, said they were proud of their daughter's efforts to save the driver.

Mick, a retired NHS driver, said: "She sent us a newspaper cutting from her local paper, the Gold Coast Bulletin. There was a big write up about what she had done. We are so proud of her.

"It's typical of her to get involved and help out. She wouldn't have thought twice a about it."

Mum Ann, who is also retired, said: "It is not surprising that she helped the driver. She worked on the ambulances for a long time, so she would have known exactly what to do.

"Apparently the man's family want to meet her now to say thank you."

Jo, a former pupil at the old Rowlinson School in Meadowhead, was a lifeguard at Ponds Forge and a swimming instructor at Dronfield before beginning her career with the NHS.