Patient drives ambulance after medic heart attack

A MAN with terminal cancer who was being taken to hospital in an ambulance saved the life of the driver, who was having a heart attack, doctors in France have revealed.

Mr Nayet was being taken to a hospital in Lille when the incident occurred. Picture: Google Maps

• French ambulance patient takes control of vehicle to save its driver from heart attack

• Driver “could have died” without help of terminal cancer patient Christian Nayet, 60

Christian Nayet, 60, took control of the vehicle after driver Jean-François Pina complained of pins and needles in his fingers.

Mr Nayet administered drugs to Mr Pina to thin his blood and stabilise his heart while diverting the ambulance to a hospital in Lens.

The patient was due to undergo routine tests at another hospital before the incident occurred.

French doctors acknowledged that without Mr Nayet’s help, Mr Pina “could have died.”

“I told him: ‘Give me the keys, trust me! My life is not in danger, but yours is,” Mr Nayet told a French newspaper.

“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.”

Mr Nayet, who spent time living in the UK before returning to France, was taken in another ambulance to the Lille hospital to undergo his scan.

He said: “I had chemo, two operations and I’m not really hopeful. My days are numbered, but morale is intact.”

The ambulance driver called Mr Nayet to thank him the next day.

“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,’” he said.