A volunteer bell-ringer was the subject of a delicate rescue operation in the bell tower in Sydney’s St Mary’s Catholic cathedral last Thursday.
The 72-year-old man had climbed more than 110 stairs to be at evening bell-ringing practice.
But he had a heart attack and collapsed.
After CPR from fellow bell-ringers, he was revived by paramedics.
Emergency workers then had to devise a way to lower him about 60 metres to the ground.
They loaded the man on to a rescue stretcher, then opened the central tower’s trapdoor, which had not been opened in about 30 years, and paramedics abseiled from the roof with the man.
The man was in a stable condition in St James’s Hospital the following day.