Having taken off from Paris on a trip organised by their association, six firefighters from Carpentras saved a woman who suffered a cardiac arrest in mid-flight, between Paris and New York. The incident took place over Canada. The plane was forced to make an emergency landing.
Serge Frizet, a 52-year-old volunteer firefighter, was part of the trip. He told our colleagues, "We’d left Paris at around 10.30 am French time and were due to land at around 12.30 pm US time at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. One of our colleagues went to the loo. The lady came out at the same time and collapsed right in front of her. Our colleague thought it was just a simple fall, but she quickly realised that the woman was unwell. The flight attendant raised the alarm. As luck would have it, there was a French cardiologist on board. She sprang into action immediately. And we started chest compressions. There were six of us taking turns: Jonathan Brès, Cédric Rambla, Chantal Dubost, Julien Pasquini, Cédric Erevanian and Serge Frizet.".
Four shocks from the defibrillator, half an hour of chest compressions, an injection administered by a fire service nurse, and treatment by the cardiologist. "And then, that lady eventually came back".