“You have to believe that I had to be there at that time and that I had to save her.” At the end of September, Nicolas, who works in the Lausanne region, went for dinner on the banks of Lake Geneva. But while passing over a bridge that straddles the highway, he saw a young girl, ready to throw herself into the void. The 55-year-old man did not hesitate. He immediately joined the one who had already passed the guardrail.
“She screamed at me: ‘No, no, no, no!’ She didn’t want me to come near. So, I took a soft, calm voice and told him, “Don’t do that. We will help you, don’t do that,” he says. I saw the cars passing by below, I knew that if she jumped, this image would haunt me. While Nicolas tried to reason with the 16-year-old girl, one of the witnesses called the emergency services.
“When she tried to jump, I managed to catch her and pulled her to the sidewalk. She screamed, but at that moment I had such adrenaline, I could have saved anyone. I was in a bubble,” relates today’s hero. He adds that two women rushed to the teenager to calm her down, before the police and the ambulance arrived.
Once the situation was under control, Nicolas was cheered. “The witnesses came to congratulate me. I didn’t understand why. For me, it was normal. They told me: “We never could have. What you have done is incredible!” There, I broke down,” confides the fifty-year-old with emotion.
Upset, he was unable to return to work that afternoon. But that same evening, the phone call from the police did him good. “They congratulated me again and told me that I had not saved one life, but several (editor’s note: those of motorists).” Nicolas also learned that the one he stopped from committing the irreparable was almost the age of his daughter. “I know she will be well taken care of. The “why”, I will probably never know.” The man was able to count on the support of his loved ones. “I talked about it a lot around me, I needed it. Today, things are much better.”
“We must intervene if we can”
The Vaud police indicate that the young girl was taken care of by medical staff, and that help was also offered to Nicolas. According to her, such a rescue is rare. “In such a situation, if we can, we must intervene and try to reason with the person, or ask for help, then call for help. But above all, we must not put ourselves in danger,” insists Catherine Bezençon. The director of Main Tendue Vaud recognizes that a state of astonishment can block any intervention. But it also reminds us that suicidal thoughts are fleeting, hence the importance of taking action. Every day, number 147 of the Pro Juventute foundation is in contact with an average of nine children and teenagers for suicidal thoughts.
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