Staff at Asda in Brierley Hill store have commended quick-thinking Dean Reilly who gave first aid to an elderly customer he found collapsed and injured on the kitchen floor of his home.

Dean was delivering the gentleman’s shopping and found the customer, who's in his 80s and suffers from a breathing condition, had fallen, hurt his shoulder and arm and was struggling to raise the alarm.

Dean, who's 38 and has worked at the store for two years, kept the man from going into shock by talking to him and making him comfortable while he waited for paramedics to arrive and take him to hospital. He said:

"It was quite an early drop, one of my first of the day. I started to get the stuff out of the van and one of the customer's neighbours from across the road was knocking at the door, but getting no response. I started to shout through the letterbox while she ran back home to get to a key for the house and I went in with her.

"The gentleman was in the kitchen and he'd taken a fall, so we called for an ambulance straight away. He wasn't sure whether he'd broken his arm and collar bone.

"I used to be in the fire service so I'm used to handling people with injuries, so I made sure he didn't have a head injury or chest pains.

“I got him comfortable and just sat with him. He was a bit confused, but I chatted to him about all sorts and made sure he didn't go into shock.

"He obviously was in a lot of pain but he hid it pretty well. He couldn't get up as he couldn't put his arms down to support himself and both his legs were bandaged up due to other problems.

"I hope that whoever would have turned up with his shopping that day would have used their initiative and not panicked. I've not been back to the house since, but one of other drivers left a note for me saying 'Bob says thanks for your help the other week', which was nice."

The store's home shopping section leader Allen Sargeant says other colleagues are proud of Dean's actions. He added:

"We're all proud of him here in store – it was a very heroic thing to do. Dean turning up when he did made all the difference.

"Dean's a really popular and approachable member of our team so it came as no surprise. After he'd spent about half an hour with the customer while they waited for the ambulance to arrive he still managed to deliver all his other shopping on time!"

Store manager Stephen Thomas, who nominated Dean for an Asda award, said: "Thank you Dean, you're a true superhero."