A mum from Ellesmere Port has blasted staff at Vue Cheshire Oaks as she claims they left her two children alone to help their dad when he collapsed with pains in his chest.

Kelly Woods explained her 11-year-old son Harrison and 13-year-old daughter Ella were leaving the cinema when her ex-partner John fell ill.

Kelly, 38, says John told their kids he thought he was having a heart attack as he struggled to breathe and started to turn blue.

Her quick-thinking kids, who attend Blacon High School, used John's mobile phone to call 999, she says, and Harrison rain into the cinema to get help.

But Kelly claims when her son asked for a defibrillator he was told by a staff member ‘we don’t have one’ and was offered no support or first aid for his dad.

She said her children have been 'really shaken up' since the emergency on Friday and she is disgusted with cinema staff for their 'heartless' response, reports our sister site the Liverpool Echo .

She said: “It is neglect on the manager’s behalf.

“My son, who was sobbing his heart out at this point, ran inside for help and asked a staff member for a defibrillator, who had to ring a manager and then after speaking to the manager said to my son ‘no we don’t have one’ and walked away from him.

“No-one helped him.

“Surely there is someone trained in first aid that could have come down and helped or comforted him.

“It is completely heartless.

“The ambulance even had to wait for me to arrive because they couldn’t leave the children on their own, which wasted critical time, because no-one had bothered to be with my kids and help them.”

John Davies, 44, who had turned blue and couldn’t speak, was rushed to hospital and was diagnosed with a severe lung infection which had restricted his breathing. He is now recovering.

Kelly said when she rang Vue Cinema at Cheshire Oaks to complain, she was told that staff had done 'all they could' in the situation.

The mum added: “I was told that by the time they had found a defibrillator my son had left and they couldn’t find him and security had said an ambulance was on the way.

“They couldn’t have known this because not one person came up to my children or John to see if they were okay.

“My son was obviously outside with his dad who couldn’t breathe - he wasn’t just going to wait around in the cinema.

“I asked who was trained in first aid and they said it was the manager but they aren’t allowed to leave the premises - so they can just leave someone possibly having a heart attack outside their building?”

She added: “My little boy has been really shaken up by about it.

“He has been crying every night and keeps asking to ring his dad and see if he is okay.

“He had kept talking to his dad telling him to keep breathing while Ella stayed on the phone until the ambulance got there and they both did everything they said.

“I’m so proud of them.

“But no child should have to see a parent go through that and have to deal with it on there own.

“The staff at Vue should be ashamed of themselves.”

Vue responds

A spokesman for Vue said: “On Friday night two children approached members of our team at Vue Cheshire Oaks to ask whether we had access to a defibrillator to assist with a medical emergency in the centre’s car park.

“We do not keep this piece of equipment on site but immediately contacted centre security for assistance.

“They advised that an ambulance was on its way.

“We have since been in touch with the children’s mother and were glad to be informed that their father did not suffer a heart attack.

“We wish him a speedy recovery.”