A DAD saved his teenage daughter’s life after she went into cardiac arrest “out of the blue” in her sleep.

Phil Packer, 57, performed CPR he’d learned over 30 years ago when stepdaughter Penny’s heart failed, and she stopped breathing at their Worcester home in the middle of the night.

Then 19, Penny had been singing earlier that evening at the city’s cathedral and Phil said she had never had heart problems before.

“Penny had taken her last breath and was clinically dead but along with the amazing call centre operator’s advice, my CPR training that I learnt over 30 years ago just came back to me,” he said.

The teenager has now been fitted with an ICD and after spending 17 weeks in hospital is following her dream by studying at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London.

Remembering the night she collapsed, Phil, who owns Malvern Party and Balloons shop, said: “Penny had been singing at Worcester Cathedral that evening and came home perfectly happy.

“My wife and I heard something in the night and rushed through to her room.

“Her cardiac arrest came out of the blue, she had never had heart problems before,” continued Phil, who immediately rang 999.

“I kept up CPR until the incredible emergency services arrived.”

Penny, now 21, had a suffered a ventricular fibrillation cardiac arrest – a type of cardiac arrhythmia – when the heart quivers instead of pumping due to disorganised electrical activity in the ventricles.

The condition results in cardiac arrest with loss of consciousness and no pulse.

Phil went on to say: “Alerted by her agonal gasping, her mother and I were able to respond within minutes. I gave my daughter CPR until paramedics arrived and despite three further cardiac arrests, she made a full neurological recovery.

“She has now been fitted with an ICD and is living a normal life around her chronic heart condition.”

Phil has since received a CPR Hero award from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and is encouraging others to help raise funds for vital research by taking part in the Worcester Hearty walk on April 7.

More than 12,000 people in Worcester are living with heart and circulatory diseases, and these conditions claim the lives of more than 200 people in the area each year.

Joining in the Worcester Hearty Walk will help raise vital funds to help with the BHF’s ground-breaking discoveries to identify new treatments for heart and circulatory conditions.

Phil said the BHF helped provide answers to the “never-ending questions going through our minds whilst enduring the long endless days and nights worrying about Penny”.

“I believe I was already compassionate in all walks of life, but the events of the night my daughter’s heart stopped showed me I am also braver than I ever knew,” said the dad-of-three.

“I am becoming daily more informed about the fight to beat heart disease and I am absolutely driven to make this happen.”

Visit bhf.org.uk/worcesterheartywalk or you can call 0300 330 3322 for a registration form or register on the day.