French man saves pregnant woman from drowning

Give it up for Eddy Devauchelle, a true modern-day hero in the real sense of the word, if ever there were one.

Last Wednesday evening, the 42-year-old electrician jumped into a freezing cold river to rescue a pregnant woman who was trapped inside a car.

And all he had to say after his act of bravery was "I was just doing my duty as a citizen."

It happened in the northern French city of Amiens after the car in which the woman and her husband had been driving was hit by another vehicle and was sent into the river, overturning in the process.

When Devauchelle arrived on the scene he reportedly saw two people kneeling at the water's edge and a man in the river with water up to his neck crying out for help.

"I got out of my car, took off my jacket and wet the back of my neck - the water was freezing," he told the local newspaper, 'Le Courrier Picard'".

He wasn't kidding. The outside air temperature was minus four degrees Celsius.

"And then I got into the river and made my way to the car," he continued.

When Devauchelle reached the car he saw that the eight month pregnant woman was trapped inside, unconscious, and after several attempts managed to force open the door and release her from her seat belt.

After he had made his way back to the river bank with the still unconscious woman, Devauchelle asked others to give him a hand pulling her out of the water.

"They were just standing there doing nothing and I have to admit I wasn't exactly polite," he said, adding that after he had put the woman in the recovery position and she started to come round he asked two girls present to continue rubbing her back.

"I returned to my car to grab a couple of fleeces to keep her warm," he said, while everyone waited for the emergency services to arrive.

Both the expectant mother and her husband were taken to a nearby hospital, where she was kept in for observations, but the hero of the hour was quite clearly Devauchelle,

And the following day the Prefect of the Picardie region, Michel Delpuech, awarded Devauchelle a silver grade medal for courage and dedication "to acknowledge this act of rescue which deserves admiration."

And so say all of us.

Isn't Eddy Devauchelle just the kind of man you would want to have around when it matters?