THE mother of a three-year-old who had a sudden seizure and stopped breathing has thanked paramedics for acting quickly to save his life.

Three year-old Reuben Parry, from Stockton, woke up one morning in August as normal, ate breakfast and began watching the Lion King movie when he suddenly became seriously ill.

His mother, Natasha said: "He hadn't been poorly at all and he was happy and laughing at the Lion King when out of the blue the seizure happened."

She rang 999 immediately and in just six minutes rapid response paramedic Tim West, from the North East Ambulance Service, was on scene with third year student paramedic Rachel Holmes.

Mr West, who has two young children of his own and has been a paramedic since 2008, said: "When we got there Reuben was lying on the sofa in the living room, not responding, with very shallow breathing, before he stopped completely.

"Rachel secured his airway and manually ventilated him to make sure we kept him breathing."

Soon afterwards paramedics Julie Hughes and Robert Douglas arrived, as Reuben went into respiratory arrest.

They took Reuben to North Tees Hospital on board the ambulance - during which time he started to respond.

Ms Parry added: "They all travelled to hospital with us and thankfully they managed to get Reuben breathing again en-route. Not only were the staff really quick, but they were all really caring and professional.

"You hear stories of patients waiting for long periods of time for an ambulance but I know only too well how short and stretched all emergency services are.

"The crew who attended even took the time to visit us and see how my boy was getting on later that day. Ambulance staff do an amazing job and quite frankly they saved my son's life that day - they were amazing and a true credit."

Reuben was met by the paediatric team, and doctors undertook tests to find out what was wrong. He is now being assessed for autism, and awaiting further tests, but has had no further seizures and is back to playing with his cars and trains, and enjoying the company of his friends at nursery.

Paramedic Ms Hughes said: “I remember Reuben well and I’m so pleased he had a good outcome. We don’t often hear feedback directly from the family so it has been lovely to meet with the family under better circumstances.”