A 10-year-old boy is being credited with saving the lives of both his newborn baby brother and mother, who did not realize that she was in labor. Ashley Moreau, who was 34 weeks pregnant, said she went to use the bathroom on August 11 when her water broke.
Her son, Jayden Fontenot, of Sulphur, Louisiana, ran next door to alert his grandmother who called 911, and then returned ready to help his mother, who was bleeding out on the bathroom floor.
Fontenot’s stepfather, Kelsey Richard, had already left for work, and the boy knew his mother and baby brother couldn’t wait for paramedics to arrive, KPLC reported.
OFF-DUTY OFFICER SAVES CHOKING 3-YEAR-OLD BOY
“When he got to the bathroom, he just took a deep breath and said, ‘OK Mom, just tell me what I need to do,’” Moreau told KPLC. “He didn’t look scared, he looked calm and brave and I said ‘OK I’m going to tell you what to do and we need to get your brother out as fast as possible because he’s breech and he can’t breathe.”
Fontenot then gently pulled the baby out by his legs but noticed that he was not breathing, KPLC reported. The quick-thinking big brother ran to the kitchen for a nasal aspirator to clear the baby’s nose.
“I wasn’t even thinking, I was just amazed,” Fontenot said. “I didn’t know what was going on.”
Paramedics arrived shortly after and the two were transferred to a local hospital where doctors called Fontenot’s actions life-saving.
“I am so proud of him,” Moreau told KPLC. “He is brave, he is strong, he is my hero. I’m just so proud of him. He saved me and his brother’s life.”
PROGRAM AIMS TO BOOST PRENATAL CARE IN RURAL US
Fontenot’s baby brother, named Dax, has been recovering in the hospital’s NICU but is expected to be released in the coming days. Fontenot was recognized by the city’s mayor at a special assembly at his elementary school, and Aug. 11 has been declared “Jayden Fontenot Day.”
“You don’t hear about stuff like this,” Richard, who didn’t find out what had happened until after everyone arrived at the hospital, told KPLC. “It’s amazing how brave and everything he was. Calm, collected, he saved their life. He’s a hero.”