PROPERTY magnate Eddie Mitchell is back at work - just weeks after his heart stopped twice when he fell ill at work.

Mr Mitchell was working in his office in Ringwood Road, Poole in early September when he became unwell.

He went to the Co-op food store next door to the office to ask for help, but collapsed. An off-duty doctor who was shopping in the store gave Mr Mitchell CPR until paramedics arrived.

Doctors performed open-heart surgery, which took ten-and-a-half hours, at Southampton General Hospital in the days after Mr Mitchell's collapse.

He was also in a medically-induced coma for three weeks.

However, at the end of October, he was able to return to work.

He said: "I did about three weeks part-time, but I've been full-time for the past week or so.

"It's a bit strange, as I can't do all that I was doing before, but I'm glad to be back."

Mr Mitchell has been left with a 12-inch scar as a result of his surgery.

"It was a huge operation - it must have worn the surgeon out," he said.

"I watched a video of what they did to me on YouTube. It was quite intense. I felt a bit funny watching it back."

He said he remembers feeling ill as he started work on a Sunday morning.

"I keep reliving it," he said.

"I remember it in detail. I'd come to work and was sitting at my desk when I just felt this pressure on my shoulders.

"It started to work its way down my back and it felt worse and worse.

"I realised something I was going on so I staggered into the Co-op and fell on my face on the floor."

In a statement given to the Daily Echo after Mr Mitchell collapsed, his family said that without the help of the off-duty doctor, Mr Mitchell may not have survived.

He said: "Everyone's been just wonderful. I was very lucky.

"The NHS is absolutely fantastic. I've been around saying thank you to everyone."

Mr Mitchell, a former AFC Bournemouth chairman, first began working in the building business when he was 16 as a hod carrier.

At the age of 24, he built his first property in Sandbanks, and has since built more than 1,000 homes.

In 1992 he established Seven Developments, which became particularly well-known for its Thunderbirds House, as well as two 16ft-wide houses built 10 inches apart on the site of a single property at Sandbanks.

He now owns ESA, a company which designs and produces intelligent football training arenas.