‘I owe her my life’: A Girl Scout helped save the life of a 73-year-old soccer player by teaching her dad CPR

By Michelle Bandur

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    ROSEVILLE, California (KCRA) — Girl Scouts learn valuable life lessons every year, from how to build a business to saving a life.

That life lesson helped save a Roseville man.

Bob Simonoff, 73, said if it wasn’t for a spunky Girl Scout, he wouldn’t be here today.

He met Laila for the first time on Wednesday.

“I owe my life to this young lady, child actually, that if it wasn’t for her, I would not have survived,” Simonoff said.

He’s talking about Laila Lamdoura,12, who joined Girl Scouts when she was in kindergarten. From the look of all her earned patches on her vest, she’s been busy learning new skills, like CPR.

“I think it’s important for us to learn CPR, just in case of an emergency,” she said. “We have to do something. We don’t want to just let him die.”

Girl Scouts Heart of Central California brings in Elizabeth Hughes to teach CPR classes four times a year. She’s with CPR with Heart.

“I think it’s empowering more than anything,” Hughes said.

Hughes said Anthem Blue Cross donates CPR kits, with dummies to the girls so they can take them home and practice.

“She was showing us, her brothers, sister, mom, dad and how to do CPR on the dummy,” said Laila’s father, Ibrahim Lamdoura.

He said he learned when you hear the click on the dummy, you know you’re doing the compressions hard enough and correctly.

Simonoff and Ibrahim Lamdoura know each other from pick-up soccer games in Roseville. One day during a game, Simonoff collapsed right on the field.

“Apparently, I was having a heart attack,” Simonoff said.

“He was not breathing,” Ibrahim Lamdoura said. “We realized we got to start CPR immediately.”

Lamdoura watched his friend go down. He and another player took turns performing CPR.

“I noticed he wasn’t pushing hard enough,” he said, “I just had that moment a few weeks back with Laila and that you need to press hard.”

Lamdoura and the other players kept Simonoff alive while the paramedics were on their way.

They broke three of his ribs, and Hughes said that’s OK and meant the men were performing CPR the right way.

Thanks to his daughter’s desire to help others, Ibrahim Lamadour knew how to save his friend.

“If she hadn’t started practicing CPR, her dad wouldn’t have started, and I wouldn’t be here,” Simonoff said.

Simonoff is back to playing soccer three times a week instead of five.

Laila Lamadour earned even more patches to put on her Girl Scout vest.

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