A steel worker has returned to an intensive care unit to thank the life-saving team who cared for him after he suffered a cardiac arrest.

Tommaso Serri, 51, collapsed while working at British Steel in Scunthorpe in May and his workmates helped to save his life before he was rushed to hospital.

He spent 10 days in the Intensive Care Unit at Castle Hill Hospital before spending 12 weeks in a rehabilitation unit at Goole Hospital to continue his recovery.

Now back home, Mr Serri and wife Becky, who have two daughters, have gone back to ICU1 at Castle Hill after raising £1,750 to thank the nursing team who looked after him in the early days.

Mrs Serri said: “We just wanted to give something back. They were absolutely fantastic and we couldn’t have asked for more.

“The nurses didn’t just look after Tom, they looked after all of us and went above and beyond to help us.

“We wanted to see them again to thank them for all they did for us.”

Mr Serri had no apparent health problems before he suffered a cardiac arrest although there was a history of heart problems in his family, with his mother dying of a stroke and heart attack in her 50s.

When he collapsed at work on May 28, his colleagues performed CPR and used a work-based defibrillator to begin the chain of survival before the ambulance arrived.

He was rushed to Scunthorpe General Hospital where doctors stabilised his condition before he was transferred to the cardiology centre at Castle Hill to be treated by the specialist team.

He underwent the procedure to fit the stent at the hospital’s Cardiac Catheterization Lab and was then moved into ICU1 to be looked after by the team of highly-skilled nurses.

Mrs Serri said: “They looked after Tom so well and the nursing was just so personal. They were lovely nurses who helped me through it.”

Mr Serri suffered a hypoxic brain injury caused by the lack of oxygen to his brain during the cardiac arrest and spent 12 weeks on the Neurological Rehabilitation Unit at Goole Hospital to continue his recovery. He was well enough to go home in September.

The family held a charity fundraising night raising £4,000 to thank the NHS for saving his life and split the money between the Goole unit and ICU1.

Maria Lewis, Critical Care Matron at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, thanked Mr and Mrs Serri for the donation.

She said: “Our staff were so happy to see Mr Serri again and how well he is doing. We see patients when they are very ill so it’s fantastic to see them again when they’ve made such progress.

“We are all so touched that they would take the time to raise all this money for us to help us care for people who find themselves in similar situations in the future and we thank they for their kindness.”