“I always told him never to climb on it”: his nine-year-old son falls into a well 23 meters deep, “for three seconds I thought he was dead”

On November 15, a mother almost lost her 9-year-old child. Exempted from school for a week following an operation, the little boy fell into a well, 23 meters deep. “I thought he was dead.”confided his mother to the Parisian which relates the affair.

The accident could have turned into a tragedy, especially from such a height. And yet. When Fanny*, the mother of a little boy notices the disappearance of her little boy while she is gardening in her father's childhood home in Veneux-les-Sablons (Seine-et-Marne), her heart sinks . “There is a large garden, and a well covered with an old plaque with a stone ledge where we put seeds for the birds”she explains to our colleagues. “I always told him never to ride on it.”. But shortly before 3:30 p.m., while her hands were in the dirt, her son disappeared. “I rushed towards the well screaming. For three seconds, I thought he was dead, I thought I was dying”she says, still in shock.

“My son can’t swim!”

After a few seconds, a voice resonates: that of her child. Relieved, the mother contacts 18 directly and rushes to her nearest neighbor. “She helped me and spoke with the firefighters. Then she went to get her headlamp, lucky! Then we had the idea of ​​throwing a hose to Nathan*”, she continues, hoping that the object is long enough for the child to grab and hold until the firefighters arrive. “It seemed so far away, down there.”

The men of the Reconnaissance and Intervention Group in Perilous Environments (Grimp) have arrived “30 or 40 minutes later.” “It was very long for me but quite quick, actually”she adds. Equipped with ropes and pulleys, they try to extract the child who is located at a depth of 23 m. “They had to take out their 30 meter long rope, the first one was too short”she remembers.

The child escaped without injuries

After 15 minutes of intervention, the little boy found dry land, suffering from slight hypothermia and covered in bruises. “He had mud in his nostrils, his eyes and his hair. But the first thing he said to meit was 'my shoe stayed at the bottom'!” Proof, for the mother, that her son, who escaped without any injury, was less shocked than she by the incident.

If the boy has “turned the page”the scene comes back in a loop for his mother who admits that it is “more complicated”. Grateful, she would like to thank the Grimp and in particular Quentin and the Samu nurse. “He was amazing. He even came back in the evening to get news!”she exclaimed. For Fanny, the story is a miracle because “my son doesn’t know how to swim! I think the very muddy and thick water meant he didn’t sink”she analyzes. Since then, Nathan's grandfather covered the well with solidly nailed boards while waiting for a mason to arrive, in order to prevent the incident from happening again.