14-year-old boy saved by youth house staff after suffering heart attack

On Friday, 21 February, 14-year-old Luca had a heart attack while playing football at the Differdange youth house in Oberkorn. Daisy Semedo and Jesse Dos Reis Pereira, childcare workers of the youth house, will never forget that day.

Just 15 minutes after the youth house had opened that day, Daisy and Jesse were alerted by Luca's classmates of his sudden state. Daisy detailed in conversation with RTL how Luca began to vomit and was unresponsive to her questions.

Daisy swiftly contacted 112 for emergency service, who told her to press her hand on his stomach and let them know when he breathed, she stated. Daisy then described how she realised that she was giving him a cardiac massage, losing the sense of time in that moment, until Luca finally started breathing again.

Daisy then described how right after that crucial moment she noticed how the other kids were reacting. Many of them were crying, and that's when Daisy realised what had just happened and what she had gone through. She told herself to pull herself together and to not cry in front of the kids.

While Daisy attended to Luca, her coworker Jesse was busy taking care of the other kids, proceeding to take them outside of the hall. Jesse recounted how he felt confident that Daisy was handling the situation well, so that he focused on ensuring other kids' wellbeing during that shocking encounter.

Thanks to Jesse's and Daisy's reactions, Luca was saved. He was "reanimated" – a word that Roberto Traversini, president of the Differdange youth house association, also uses to refer to other tasks that the association accomplishes, stating that they also "reanimate" youth that have lost their way by offering them a space to meet and find their way back to society.

On Wednesday, 9 April, the youth house team enjoyed a pizza with Luca and his mother in Differdange. Luca had received a 5-hour-long surgery at the Saint-Luc hospital in Brussels on 20 March in order to place a defibrillator in his body. On 24 March, he was able to come back home with his mother.

In conversation with RTL, Luca expressed his wish to play football again. Although he's not allowed to do any kind of sport until 23 April, he feels well and is impatiently waiting for that day. However, some tests need to be run before the 14-year-old boy can follow his passion for sports again. That hasn't stopped Luca from going to the youth house almost every day during these school holidays, he said.

Almost two months after this incident, Daisy and the team are feeling much more at ease. Some say Luca has a guardian angel, and this time, it came in the form of the Differdange educational staff. Now, what he needs most is a bit of patience – something that Luca candidly admits that he doesnt have – in order to go back to the life of a normal boy.