FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A South Florida man who turned to a high-tech lifeline when he experienced a medical emergency reunited with the first responders who turned a digital cry for help into a second chance at life.
There was a round of applause and not a dry eye in the room as 70-year-old Daniel Vallaire reunited Thursday with the people who saved his life last summer at Broward Health Medical Center.
“The reason that he stayed down for so long was that he became profoundly dehydrated,” said Dr. Alexander Justicz, a cardiac surgeon at the hospital.
Vallaire, who sat next to the doctor, broke down in tears.
“Like I said, you’re a tough nut,” said Justicz as he put his hand on his former patient’s shoulder. “You survived to tell the story.”
“I did,” said Vallaire.
There was someone else to thank for the patient’s survival: Siri.
“I said, ‘Siri, call Victoria Vallaire,’ and she did,” he said. “If I [only] had a landline, there’s no way I would be able to get to it.”
Vallaire spent the 48 hours before his 70th birthday lying on his bathroom floor after he collapsed.
“[I was] crawling, I couldn’t crawl. I mean, it was on a tile floor, and it was slippery and oh, my God, and it was just very, very scary,” he said. “Inch by inch by inch.”
Vallaire eventually mustered up the strength to crawl a short distance to his living room, then yelled out to Siri, who dialed his daughter Victoria, who called 911.
“If this would have happened without [Siri], I wouldn’t be here,” he said.
“We received a call of an unconscious person and made it there within 10 minutes,” said Lesly St. Fleur with Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue.
Authorities rushed the 70-year-old to BHMC. Doctors learned the patient collapsed after suffering a stroke caused by an infection in two of his aortic valves.
Vallaire’s surgeon said that while he made it nearly three days without food, water or care, most other stroke patients require care within the hour.
“On July 8th, our crews responded to a report of a possible unconscious person. They made it there within 10 minutes,” said Lesly St. Fleur with Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue.
“I’ve never been so happy to see two human beings in my life,” said Vallaire. “[The paramedics] got me up, they got me out.”
As he fell in and out of consciousness for those 48 hours, Vallaire said, one thing kept him alive.
“You know, I had a purpose, a purpose to be here,” said Vallaire. “Definitely, I didn’t want to leave my daughter. I wanted to live. Real simple.”
As Vallaire reunited with the medical professionals who gave him another shot at life, he said he’s got nothing but a heart full of gratitude, as well as a message this American Heart Month.
“Be conscious of your heart. It’s the only thing in your body that works 24/7, 365, and if you don’t have it, you’re not going to live,” he said.
Victoria said she had moved to California a week before her father suffered the stroke. She couldn’t stay away after what he had been through, and she has since moved back in with him in Fort Lauderdale.
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