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Kiwi football great Wynton Rufer grateful for quick-thinking stranger who helped him during heart attack

January 13, 2019

A passerby leapt into action after the former All White collapsed last weekend.

New Zealand football legend Wynton Rufer is thankful for a stranger's quick thinking which helped him survive after having a heart attack on an Auckland street last weekend.

A passerby leapt into action after the former All White collapsed, performing CPR until paramedics arrived.

Rufer said, "I'm very lucky - very lucky".

Rufer was riding a Lime scooter home after going to a Breakers game last Sunday when "next thing, I wake up - I'm in the hospital," he recalled.

Nick Moss was driving through Parnell at the time when he came across "a couple of people on the ground on the street".

"[We saw] a couple of scooters lying over and so we just thought, 'This doesn't look too good,' and went to give them some help," Mr Moss said.

He had completed a first aid course just months earlier, and said, "Initially, I was sort of like, 'What do I do?' but then you pretty much just jump into it".

"Really fortunate it was only five minutes from when we got there 'tll the ambulance turned up."

Rufer, 56, was shocked at what had happened, adding that he has led a healthy life.

"I do power walks here once a week with my wife and it's, just - can't believe it, really. It's a wake-up call. For those people out there who are perhaps over 50, you know, go and have a check-up, especially with the heart."

The football legend phoned Mr Moss to give his thanks – and a dinner invitation is on the way.

"Good guy. He's kept me alive, you know?"

However, Mr Moss downplayed his role in saving Rufer's life, saying, "You see someone in need, you go and help them - it's what you should do".

"I think if more people can do this first aid training, the better chance of someone getting home at the end of a day."

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