--- description: He knew when he opened the man's shirt and saw wires title: Paris Nurse Discovered Man He Was Trying to Save Was a Suicide Bomber image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcba7e3cde0555039/6988725b8e0601c61b46373d/david-nurse-paris-attacks.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [paris](/tag/paris/) ## paris Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Paris Nurse Discovered Man He Was Trying to Save Was a Suicide Bomber by [Samantha Grossman](/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 21, 2015 9:25 PM CUT  David, a French nurse who delivered first aid to a suicide attacker during the Paris attacks, during an interview with Reuters in Paris on Nov. 20, 2015. David, a French nurse who delivered first aid to a suicide attacker during the Paris attacks, during an interview with Reuters in Paris on Nov. 20, 2015.Eric Gaillard—Reuters by [Samantha Grossman](/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 21, 2015 9:25 PM CUT Following the explosion at Paris’s Comptoir Voltaire cafe — part of a series of terrorist attacks on Nov. 13 — a nurse named David was quick to help the wounded people around him. David, who asked to be identified just by his first name, [told Reuters](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/21/us-france-shooting-nurse-bomber-idUSKCN0TA00N20151121#ZkmDSfbQ4JDYyGVC.97 "undefined") that he performed CPR on a man he later realized was a bomber. He knew the second he tore open the man’s t-shirt. “There were wires; one white, one black, one red and one orange. Four different colors,” he told Reuters. “I knew then he was a suicide bomber.” The man was Brahim Abdeslam, who ended up being the only person who died in the cafe. Initially, David thought the explosion was caused by gas. “At this point, I never thought he was a suicide bomber, he was a customer like everyone else,” he said. “I thought that after the gas explosion, he must have gotten hurt.” \[[Reuters](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/21/us-france-shooting-nurse-bomber-idUSKCN0TA00N20151121#ZkmDSfbQ4JDYyGVC.97 "undefined")\] Paris Attacks: Nurse Tried Saving Suicide Bomber ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4123523/paris-nurse-suicide-bomber/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4123523/paris-nurse-suicide-bomber/"},"headline":"Paris Nurse Discovered Man He Was Trying to Save Was a Suicide Bomber","datePublished":"2015-11-21T21:25:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:49:46.955Z","description":"He knew when he opened the man's shirt and saw wires","url":"https://time.com/4123523/paris-nurse-suicide-bomber/","keywords":["paris"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcba7e3cde0555039/6988725b8e0601c61b46373d/david-nurse-paris-attacks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcba7e3cde0555039/6988725b8e0601c61b46373d/david-nurse-paris-attacks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"David, a French nurse who delivered first aid to a suicide attacker who blew himself up at the Comptoir Voltaire cafe during last week's Paris attacks, poses during an interview with Reuters in Paris","caption":"David, a French nurse who delivered first aid to a suicide attacker who blew himself up at the Comptoir Voltaire cafe during last week's Paris attacks, poses during an interview with Reuters in Paris","creditText":"Eric Gaillard—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/paris/","name":"paris"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4123523/paris-nurse-suicide-bomber/","name":"Paris Nurse Discovered Man He Was Trying to Save Was a Suicide Bomber"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"A Timeline of the Paris Attacks","description":"A Timeline of Paris Attacks","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/4MTtdsM7/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-11-14T20:13:24.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/4MTtdsM7.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4123523/paris-nurse-suicide-bomber/","duration":"PT2M44S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4123523/paris-nurse-suicide-bomber/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```