It was a miracle rescue. In the town of Combourg, in Ille-et-Vilaine, a three-month-old infant who had just had a heart attack survived thanks to a passing stranger, who arrived in the family home in flip-flops and pajamas, reveal our colleagues from Ouest-France.
The facts date back to September 10. A couple and their two young children are getting ready for bed. But when the mother, Ivy, carries her 3-month-old daughter, she notices that she is fainting. "She screamed and then collapsed. She was no longer breathing," she told Ouest-France. The mother therefore called the Samu and began a cardiac massage, as advised by telephone. She barely has time to practice first aid when a stranger in pajamas arrives in her living room. "I saw a gentleman arrive in flip-flops, socks and shorts in the middle of the night," she recalls. "He asked me where it was. I didn't try to understand, I pointed to the sofa, he took over.
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"Good Samaritan"
The unknown man, aged 37 and named Guillaume, is in fact a nurse's assistant in the emergency department of the Rennes University Hospital, a volunteer firefighter in Combourg. If he's caught wind of the situation, it's because he's registered on the Staying Alive app. The software, which is free, lists defibrillators around you, and allows people trained in first aid to become "good Samaritans". In other words, volunteer rescuers "can be mobilized anywhere and at any time in case of vital distress," says the Good Samaritan website, which counts as partners the General Directorate of Civil Security and departments such as Loire-Atlantique, Yonne or Alsace.
"I was watching TV when my phone rang. It was the Staying Alive app, which I signed up for, that told me that less than two kilometers from my house, someone was having a heart attack. I didn't think about it. I went for it," Guillaume told our colleagues. On the spot, he performs cardiac massage, only with two fingers, and not the whole palm, as recommended for an infant. "It was a real relief to see that a professional was coming in to take over because you don't know if you're doing it right," says Ivy.
A few minutes later, firefighters arrived with a defibrillator, and managed to get the infant's heart to restart. The baby was then transported to the South Hospital of Rennes. "Doctors at the Samu told me that I had saved his life.Without the massage, his heart probably wouldn't have recovered," Guillaume continues. Still hospitalized, the little girl is now in a pediatric rehabilitation unit. She had a tumor in her heart, for which she underwent surgery.