Retained firefighter Mr Loxley, 43, has a history of heart conditions in his family, and was due for a check up on July 13.

That morning, he had been running errands before his health appointment. He told his wife, a fellow firey, that he would be home for lunch.

At 10.50 am, during his stress test at PRP Diagnostic Imaging, NSW Ambulance were called after Mr Loxley felt a pain in the middle of his back. He had had pains in his back before, but this time it was different.

His cardiologist told him a blood clot had moved to his heart, and he was having a heart attack.

"My whole day turned upside down from there," Mr Loxley said.

The ambulance arrived in a couple of minutes, ready to transport him to Orange Base Hospital. After getting an all clear, the paramedics injected Mr Loxley with a thrombolytic drug to dissolve the blood clot.

"I remember getting in the ambulance and having a joke on the way saying it can't be that bad," Mr Loxley said. "The next thing I remember thinking was 'What's wrong with my ribs?'".

As they left the imaging centre's car park, he felt nauseous.

The ambulance was on the outskirts of town when Mr Loxley had begun vomiting and very soon, lost consciousness.

Jason Moffitt, station officer at Dubbo Ambulance, was in the back with Scott Ferrari, and Jane Ryan, while driver Sofie Weston stopped the emergency vehicle on the side of the road.

The three paramedics began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on Mr Loxley.

"We need three people... one on the airway, one on the chest, and one rotating through, because it's fatiguing doing these CPRs, it's [important] to rotate" Mr Moffitt said.

The paramedics knew Mr Loxley personally, they had worked together on a number of occasions, and this put a lot more pressure on the team.

"For someone so young, 43 years of age... there's a lot of emotions that go through us at the time," Mr Moffitt said. "We were working on his chest... bouncing up and down."

"Come on Josh, fight," they said to Mr Loxley.

After two shocks and six minutes of CPR, Mr Loxley started to move his head and respond.

"And then a miracle, he just sits up and starts to talk," Mr Moffitt said.

Mr Loxley remembers waking up like nothing had happened, except his ribs hurt from CPR chest compressions.

In NSW, more than 8,200 people have heart attacks outside of hospital, and only 12% survive. Chances of survival during a cardiac arrest decrease with passing every minute.

Four paramedics, control room operators, cardiologists in Orange and Dubbo, and a consultant in Sydney, pooled their resources to save Mr Loxley's life.

Mr Moffitt said this is what paramedics train for.

"It was nice to put it into action, and actually get a result," he said.

In his 18 years in ambulance services, this was the first time was standing up in front of him. Mr Moffitt said it was an "amazing feeling". He had been emotional because such outcomes were extremely rare.

"I might go through my next 20 years in Ambulance and not ever see this again," Mr Moffitt said. "It's certainly a proud moment in my career, and one that I'll remember forever."

According to him, the incident is a big lesson for the community. He said it was important that the general public learn how to perform CPR, and have access to defibrillators.

The paramedics met Mr Loxley for the first time today since the incident. He gave the four of them big hugs and thanked them for saving his life.

Lucky Mr Loxley and his wife, Tash, are parents to 4 children, their youngest is 7 months old. They are all happy to have him alive and kicking.

He will be attending cardiac rehab at Dubbo Base hospital for 6 weeks and then go through multiple assessment checks before he can go back to firefighting.

In the next year, a cardiac catheter lab will be opening in Dubbo. Patients at risk of cardiac arrests will be taken there instead of Orange, increasing the survival rate for people like Mr Loxley.