Heroic home nurse, 64, dies saving her wheelchair-bound paraplegic patient, 71, from house fire
A 64-year-old home nurse has died saving her 71-year-old paraplegic patient from a house fire in Louisiana.
The disabled homeowner told investigators Gwendolyn Theus alerted her to the fire on Monday evening and tried several times to wheel her bed out of her room.
Theus was in the process of attempting to push the patient out of a window when smoke overpowered the nurse, the Louisiana State Fire Marshal's Office said in a news release.
Louisiana home nurse Gwendolyn Theus, 64, succumbed to smoke trying to save her disabled patient from a house fire on Monday
Theus made multiple attempts to wheel the paraplegic woman's bed out of her room and push her out of a window at her home on Macon Drive in Delhi, Louisiana (pictured)
Neighbors also made attempts to help from the outside before firefighters arrived
Firefighters responded to the scene in the 100 block of Macon Drive in Delhi just before 6pm and pulled both women from the bedroom of the burning house and administered CPR to them.
The statement said the older woman was airlifted from her home to a burn unit in Mississippi and is expected to recover.
'Ms. Theus´ valiant efforts to put her patient's life before her own are both admirable and heartbreaking,' State Fire Marshal H. 'Butch' Browning stated. 'Our prayers are with her loved ones and with the surviving victim for her recovery and loss of her dedicated nurse and friend.'
Firefighters pulled Theus from the home and performed CPR but could not save her
Extensive damage has kept investigators from getting inside the house to try to determine where and how the fire started, the news release said.
Officials noted the home did have working smoke alarms.
According to social media posts, Theus is survived by her husband and children.
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