There was smoke everywhere and an 8-year-old girl who couldn’t breathe. Jennifer Mily was 21 years old, her shift had just started, and she had a single oxygen mask on her face. The decision she made at that moment would change her life: she took it off and put it on Helena.
What came next was serious. Without protection, Jennifer inhaled a massive amount of toxic smoke while finishing the rescue. That same night she was rushed to a hospital in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, where doctors diagnosed severe pulmonary complications and pneumonia. She spent at least four days in intensive care. Her colleague Washington Aquino put it bluntly: that decision was what saved the girl. In addition to Helena, Jennifer managed to get ten other people out of the fire in Nova Aliança, in the interior of São Paulo.
When she began breathing without mechanical assistance, she recorded a video from her hospital bed. She did not complain. She thanked everyone for the support she received and summed it all up with the motto that, according to those who know her, defines how she understands her work: “life for lives”. Some people talk about vocation. Jennifer Mily showed, quite literally, the price hers comes with.
