Radio DJ saves life of suicidal man who had just overdosed on-air: ‘I love you brother, you deserve better than this’

An English radio DJ saved the life of a 58-year-old man who had taken an 

intentional overdose of drugs on Wednesday.

What are the details?

Radio host Iain Lee stayed on the line for 30 minutes with a suicidal caller who had 

phoned in and told Lee that he'd taken a drug overdose in an attempt to kill himself.

The man — who was identified only as Chris — called in and said that he was near a 

nightclub in the city of Plymouth.

On the call, Lee can be heard attempting to pry further location and other identifying 

details from the caller in order to get emergency services to him as quickly as 

possible.

"Do you want to die, Chris?" Lee asks at one point during the call. "Chris, I love you 

brother, you deserve better than this. Whatever has happened, I promise you it can be 

sorted. It might not be easy."

Lee himself has been candid in the past about his struggles with mental health and 

depressions that followed coming off antidepressant medications.

Lee was finally able to get enough information out of Chris to give to his producers 

who called an ambulance to track the man down.

At one point, Lee can be heard saying, "Where's this bloody ambulance?" after Chris 

goes silent.

Chris remained silent for about 10 minutes, and Lee is clearly distressed.

"This is horrendous," Lee can be heard saying. "Can anyone hear me? Hello, can 

anyone hear me?"

Chris can be heard murmuring on the other end of the line, to which Lee responds, 

"Chris, you're still alive! Thank Christ."

The ambulance eventually did find Chris and took him to a nearby hospital for 

treatment, according to South Western Ambulance Services.

"SWASFT paramedics were called at 11pm, December 19 to Derry's Cross, 

Barbican, by a radio station who were concerned for the welfare of a patient," the 

organization said in a statement. "The male patient was treated at the scene and taken 

onto Derriford Hospital ED for further treatment."

What did the DJ say?

After the show, Lee tweeted, "Tonight we took a call from a man who had taken an 

overdose. He was lying in a street in Plymouth, dying. We managed to keep him 

online, get a description of what he looked like and was wearing, work out where he 

was and send an ambulance and police to him. Kept him on the phone for 30 minutes

 while he got harder to understand."

He later added, "Long periods of silence where I thought he'd died. F***, that was 

intense and upsetting. Thanks for your kind words. I really hope he makes it."