Rescuer trained by the Paris firefighters as part of his civic service, Théo Cusson, 22, is not about to forget the crucial role he played in saving a child, this Tuesday at midday in the eleventh. Alerted at 1:18 p.m. by a text message from the Sauv Life * application signaling him "a cardiac arrest at 76, rue Sedaine", this young Parisian, in charge of a sports hall on rue du Chemin vert (XIe), left " running, directed by my GPS ”, at the address indicated.
An infant on the hood
“When I got there, I first saw a crowd around a car. As I expected to find someone lying on the floor, I saw an infant on the hood. A man, following the instructions of a firefighter on the phone, tried to massage him as best he could but his gestures were not effective. Immediately I took over. I put my hands around the baby's rib cage - whose heart was no longer beating - so that my thumbs pressed against his breastbone. I massaged it like this for three or four minutes until the arrival of the firefighters and the pediatric Samu, ”says Théo who, if he had not been color blind, would no doubt have been a firefighter like his father. Once resuscitated, the little boy was transported to the Necker hospital (15th century).
"I played the role of the missing link"
Holder of a STAPS license (science and techniques of physical and sporting activities), Théo Cusson is not one to ride mechanicals. To those who point out to him that he saved this child, he replies: "No, I contributed to it. But the firefighters and the doctors did their part too. I played the role of the missing link in the relief chain, knowing that cardiac massage allows blood to continue to circulate in the body and to irrigate the brain and the heart. ” And to specify: “In the event of cardiac arrest, the first ten minutes are the most important. Every minute that goes by loses a 10% chance of resuscitating the person. ”
Given the urgency, the young rescuer had no contact with the baby's mother who, panicked, left the hotel where she lives with her son in her arms, shouting "Help!" A passerby called the firefighters who sent the alert on the Sauv Life app. While saying he was "relieved" to have learned that the infant survived, Théo Cusson confides: "After the massage, once the adrenaline went down, I spent a lot of time asking myself: do I Did I do it right? ”And to conclude:“ The biggest frustration is not knowing the child's current state of health ”.
AN APP CREATED BY A PHYSICIAN
Funded by private donors, the Sauv Life application was created in March 2018 by a doctor from Samu, Lionel Lamhaut and a police officer, Arnaud Libert. Today, 350,000 citizen rescuers in France (including 10,160 in Paris) have downloaded this application. Their mission: "Act before the arrival of firefighters to maintain mechanical heart activity and preserve the brain". Each day in France, a cardiac massage is performed by one of the Sauv Life network rescuers.
