French cancer patient 'saves ambulance man's life'

Christian Nayet, a retired 60-year-old old residing in the northern French town of Berck-sur-mer, who has stomach cancer which spread to the liver, was being taken by ambulance to a hospital in Lille to undergo routine tests. But when the driver, Jean-François Pina, began to complain of tingling in the fingers, Mr Nayet took over and diverted the ambulance to another hospital in Lens. During the ride, he also administered a blood thinning drug to the driver, as well as another to stabilise his heartbeat. "I told him: 'Give me the keys, trust me! My life is not in danger, but yours is," Mr Nayet told the newspaper Voix du Nord. "I couldn't fire the siren, but I managed to turn the lights on and told him to put his arm out the window to signal to the cars to let us pass." Frederic Allienne, an emergency worker at the Lens hospital, said Mr Nayet drove into the area reserved for ambulances and the driver was immediately admitted to the emergency room. "The patient gave correct information, had the right reflexes, which allowed the driver to be treated quickly," Mr Allienne said, adding that without Mr Nayet's assistance, the driver "could have died." The ambulance driver phoned him the following day, saying: "I have a wife, a child and you saved me." "He wanted to see me again," said Mr Nayet. "I told him: 'The most important thing is that you're ok. As for me, the night (I saved you) I slept like a baby - I knew I had done something good." Mr Nayet, who moved back to France from Britain after he was diagnosed, was taken in another ambulance to the Lille hospital to undergo his scan. "I had chemo, two operations and I'm not really hopeful. My days are numbered, but morale is intact." As for his feat. "Anyone would have done it," he said.