THREE police heroes were today praised after saving the life of a man who had taken a heroin overdose.

Acting Sergeant Carl Doherty, Constable David Wilkinson and Constable Michelle Hubbard discovered a 25-year-old man Alex Quinn lying on a sofa in a flat in Ellenshaw Close, Darwen.

Paramedics called to the scene by the trio said they had saved his life.

Chris Fraser-Clarke, of Darwen Ambulance Station, who administered an antidote to the man, said: "There is no doubt in my mind that the three police officers saved this man's life. They have done exceptionally well because they followed a line of inquiry on a hunch and it led them to this man in this state.

"If they had not walked in when they did and telephoned us this guy would have been dead within minutes."

The line of inquiry which led the officers to the flat began with a report of an insecure property on the Ellenshaw Estate earlier on Monday night.

The three attended the scene and came across a man acting suspiciously.

Inspector Stephen Haworth explained: "The officers spoke to the man and when they saw him later they stopped him again. "They found property on this man and when they checked out his home address they found a second man lying on the couch.

"He was very ill, non-responsive and was having difficulty breathing. They gave him first aid and called an ambulance."

Mr Quinn, who lives in Darwen, is believed to be a drug addict who has recently completed a detoxification programme.

He was taken to Blackburn Royal Infirmary where he was today said to be "stable".

Sergeant Doherty said: "We have been in situations where people have over-dosed before, but what was different here was that this hadn't been reported to us, we just happened to come across this man. He was very grey and ashen-looking and had vomit coming out of his mouth.

"We put him in the recovery position and called an ambulance. The ambulance staff said that if we hadn't found him he would probably have been dead in the morning." Mr Fraser-Clarke went on: "It appears this man has recently undergone detox but had subsequently gone out, bought a £10 bag of heroin and injected himself with it.

"The problem is that when someone has undergone detox their tolerance to the drug goes down and they cannot take as much as they could before so they overdose.

"When we arrived, his breathing had practically stopped but his heart was racing away.

"If we had not got there when we did and administered the antidote his heart would have run out of oxygen and stopped."

Inspector Haworth said: "This is an example of sensible police work paying dividends. It is fairly clear a man would have lost his life had they not been so diligent."

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