New Forest Tour bus driver Mark Brick diverts to hospital after passenger suffers seizure

A QUICK-THINKING bus driver diverted his double decker straight to hospital after a young passenger on board suffered a seizure.

Morebus driver Mark Brick, who lives in New Milton, was steering the New Forest Tour route through Christchurch last Friday when a panicked passenger told him a teenage girl on the top deck was having a seizure.

"I pulled into a bus stop and went upstairs to see this girl," Mark said. "She was clearly in a bad way and I felt so sorry for her.

"I've never seen anything like it before, although it was quite clearly a seizure.

"She was really struggling and she looked very pale – I was very concerned.

"I told the guy to hold her in the recovery position while I took us to hospital."

Mark said he was near Jumpers Corner when the alarm was raised so he diverted his bus straight to Royal Bournemouth Hospital less than a mile away.

He said: "There's works going on there at the moment so I had to nudge some cones out of the way to pull straight in front of the hospital's A&E department.

"Luckily there were a couple of paramedics out the front just getting out of their ambulance, although they were looking at me a bit strange as I pulled in.

"I told them there was a girl on board having a seizure and they came straight over."

Paramedics treated the girl on board for about 10 minutes before bringing her round and taking her into the hospital on a stretcher.

"Everybody on the bus knew what was happening and they were all as good as gold about it," said Mark.

"I couldn't turn the bus around in the hospital grounds, so one of the paramedics went out into the street to stop traffic for me as I reversed out and got back under way.

"I think we arrived in Bournemouth about 20 minutes late."

He added: "I don't know who the man was on board who helped this girl – he just got off the bus before I had chance to say thank you."

Despite now being hailed a hero by his employer, modest Mark said: "I did what any one of our drivers would have done under the same circumstances.

"I've never had to deal with anything like that before but the ambulance crews said I did the right thing. I just hope she recovers okay."

Morebus operations manager Gary Rose said: “We are all very proud of Mark. He acted with professionalism and humility.

"He stayed in touch with me throughout the incident, and I hope his other passengers understood the need for the slight delay to their journey.

"I would like to wish the person concerned a full and speedy recovery.

“At Morebus, we know we have excellent drivers, but we also look for the ability to provide great customer service when we recruit new colleagues.

"Mark is the epitome of that, and he is very worthy of the praise he is receiving.”