A Belhar mom says her two-week-old baby would not be alive today, were it not for heroic firefighters who breathed life into her daughter who had choked to death.
Chantal Jansen, 37, went into a flat panic on Saturday, 8 June, when one of her four children told her her newborn, Bronlynne-Lee had stopped breathing.
Her child had suffocated on phlegm caused by a chest infection, and desperate for help, Chantal ran to the Belhar Fire Station.
She tells Daily Voice: “When my daughter called me to say Bronlynne-Lee was not moving on the bed where I put her down to sleep, I rushed in and I heard as she exhaled her last breath.
“I just grabbed her and ran to the neighbour, who gave her some Prospan cough mixture, that we put in her mouth and she gasped and she again stopped breathing.
“That’s when I ran up the road to the fire station.”
Firefighter and paramedic Alroy Pieterse saw Chantal run in with her little bundle and rushed to assist her.
He took Bronlynne-Lee from her mother and did CPR on the little girl.
He used suction to clear her airways and oxygen to resuscitate her.
Alroy’s team stood by, speaking to the little girl, rubbing her chest, as they to bring the little girl, who was already blue, back to life.
And then she started screaming.
“It was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. I thought I had lost my little girl,” the crying mom said.
“They saved my baby’s life and I don’t even know how to thank them for what they have done for us. I am truly grateful.”
A quick-thinking Alroy says it all happened in five frantic minutes: “Chantal stood there with the baby and could not even tell me what she needed. I took the bundle and she was blue.
“She was not breathing and I had to force myself not to think of the baby we had lost just two weeks before when we were unable to bring it back to life.”
The firefighter says he said a prayer and applied his training over and over until they finally got a pulse.
Belhar firefighters with little Bronlyn-Lee Jansen. Photo: City of Cape Town
“I sighed deeply. We are firefighters yes, but we are also people who feel and saving someone’s life is always an emotional thing. She is my little fighter now,” he says smiling at baby Bronlynne-Lee snuggled in his arms.
As a gift to the new addition to the family, Alroy’s team made up a collection and the little one was gifted clothing and baby products.
Belhar firefighting staff showered little Bronlyn-Lee Jansen and her mother Chantel with love. Photo: City of Cape Town
“They not only saved her life, they are even helping me raise her. I don’t have the words to express my gratitude, but I will raise my daughter in honour of the people who saved her life,” adds Chantal.