Heroic Grandmother Saves Choking Infant in French Emergency Shelter

The events took place on April 5th. While Marie, a young mother housed in an emergency shelter Coallia in Les Mureaux (Yvelines) was giving a bottle to her newborn, the child began to choke. "There was something that wasn’t going through," confides the 25-year-old mother to the newspaper Le Parisien. "I placed her on my shoulder, but she had closed her eyes and was no longer breathing... Milk was coming out of her nose, her face was turning blue." Panicked, she seeks help in her immediate neighborhood. Her young neighbors respond to her call but are not of much use.

The firefighters were then called for help. "Everyone was in a panic, no one knew what to do," says Fatima, a social worker at the shelter. "Finally, this lady arrived and calmed everyone down. She took my daughter by the feet and she started breathing and crying again," says Marie. "I will never thank her enough. Without this grandmother, my baby would no longer be there."

Rabeaa, 69, is the grandmother who saved the newborn. This mother of five children, also grandmother of ten grandchildren, is one of Marie’s neighbors. "I heard the screaming and I didn’t really think about it," testifies this Algerian woman. "The mother was crying and saying: ’My baby is going to die, my baby is going to die’... I told her not to worry and I took the little one in my arms. I blocked her nose so she could breathe through her mouth and she started breathing again..."

"We must salute this heroic gesture as it should be," adds Fatima. "It’s nice to see that even today people are helping each other. In our shelter, it’s often difficult for our residents, and this beautiful story has done the greatest good to every person housed here."