The serenity of an emergency services worker who explained to a 70-year-old how to give a cardiac massage to his wife who was having a heart attack will allow the couple to celebrate their 50th birthdaye Wedding anniversary in a few weeks.
“Come here,” Pierre Leprohon launched when, for the first time in his life, he saw Martine Charbonneau, the dispatcher who accompanied him to the rescue of his wife.
“If you weren’t there, look, she wouldn’t be there,” says the man, pointing to the “wonderful” after a long hug during an emotional encounter Le Journal attended.
Photo Nicolas Saillant
Pierre Leprohon and Martine Charbonneau embraced for the first time after the 9-1-1 call two months earlier. Roxane Sicotte, the Miraculous, is behind.
Sudden heart attack
On the afternoon of February 24, Roxane Sicotte, 71, was sitting on the couch listening to the news when her spouse heard “a death scream.” Without warning, the woman has just had a heart attack and is not breathing.
Distraught, Pierre Leprohon dialed 9-1-1 to call for an ambulance. On the other end of the line, Martine Charbonneau, mother of three, with just four months’ experience as an emergency operator at the Center de communication santé Laurentides-Lanaudière, takes the call.
In a matter of seconds, the dispatcher helps Mr. Leprohon to pull himself together, he who is in shock and talking non-stop. “Sir, listen to me,” says the 37-year-old firmly.
“You have to have a directive tone. We may seem stupid or dry, but we have no choice. It gets his attention and that’s where he listens,” explains the dispatcher.
Then she tells the 73-year-old, who has never had CPR training, how to do it and where to place his hands. “We’re going to do a cardiac massage now. We begin: 1, 2, 3, 4,” she then repeats countless times to set the tempo for Mr. Leprohon.
Hope
After a few minutes, Mr. Leprohon regained hope when his partner began to breathe again. “Go on Roxanne, you’re gonna get it, you’re gonna get it!” he said, encouraging his wife to breathe.
During this time, Martine repeats to him to continue until the arrival of the first responders, the Saint-Sauveur-Piedmont fire brigade. “When we got her into the ambulance, she was alive, she had a pulse,” says paramedic Jean Lessard.
Ms. Sicotte was transported to Saint-Jérôme, then to the Sacré-Coeur hospital, where two arteries were exposed. Almost two months later, the grandmother has no aftermath and no recollection of the event, apart from her ribs causing pain from her spouse’s cardiac massage.
“It’s coming for me, it’s thanks to them that I’m here today,” Roxane Sicotte said, pointing at Martine and her spouse. The latter adds: “It is thanks to Martine that we will be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary in June.”
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