A real miracle.
It is just before 8 p.m. on Sunday April 23 when the TGV linking Paris to Montpellier with Julien* and Alexandre* on board enters Valence station (Drôme).
Aged 20 and 22, the two young men are in training at a national police school in the Occitanie region.
Julien, a volunteer firefighter by training, is quietly sitting in the train when he understands that a crowd movement is happening behind him.
“
I was back to the stage.
Turning around, I saw that a woman was helping a man who was not waking up,
” he explained to Le
Figaro
.
The two comrades then get up quickly to go to the man's bedside.
Aged 65 and blind, he is accompanied by his partner and his teenage daughter.
The two student peacekeepers note that the man has no pulse: “
I carried him and stretched him out along the corridor.
I started cardiac massage with several cycles of compression
” continues Julien.
Other passengers take the opportunity to get a cardiac defibrillator.
A first shock is delivered, without success.
Julien and Alexandre resume cardiac massage, taking turns.
A second shock is delivered using the defibrillator: “
That's when the man's pulse came back.
He was then positioned in the lateral safety position, while ensuring that his breathing and blood circulation continued well.
We stayed like that until help arrived,
” explains the volunteer firefighter.
The man was finally taken care of by the Valence firefighters and evacuated by the SAMU to the nearest hospital.
The intervention of Julien and Alexandre was surely decisive: several days after the tragedy, the sexagenarian is doing well.
“
We had the hospital on the phone three days later.
They explained to us that everything was fine for him,
” he rejoiced with Le
Figaro
.
*Names have been changed.
