LEWISTON — Former Lewiston police officer and firefighter Guy Pilote was surrounded by friends Saturday night for his 50th birthday at the Ramada Inn.

It was no ordinary party.

An estimated 200 friends gathered to celebrate his survival of a catastrophic stroke, and to raise money to help the Lewiston family with medical expenses.

“It’s amazing. It’s impressive. It’s way too much, but I’m not surprised,” said his wife, Sue Pilote, assistant principal at Turner Elementary School. “When you spend 25 years of your life serving the community, the community remembers you.”

Pilote was a Lewiston police officer for 10 years, a firefighter for 15. He received a “Top Cop” award for rescuing a baby from a Lewiston fire in 1996. The baby was in her crib as flames raged around her. Pilote pulled her to safety.

The stroke hit Pilote on Oct. 8 after he completed a 3-mile run. Not feeling well, he told his wife he was going to lie down before going to work. She left for her job concerned. “It’s not like him to lay down,” she said. When she got to school she called him. “He said he was fine.”

Later his daughter tried to wake him up. “He started vomiting and babbling incoherently,” his wife said. His daughter called 911. Paramedics rushed him to Central Maine Medical Center, where he was treated and sent by ambulance to Maine Medical Center.

During the first week after the stroke he was in the Intensive Care Unit. “It wasn’t looking too good,” Sue Pilote said. “He was unresponsive. He wasn’t breathing on his own.”

The stroke hit the right side of his body. Doctors said the best case would be that he might walk with a cane in six months.

In late October, he left the hospital in a wheelchair. He couldn’t talk and was on a feeding tube.

On Saturday, Pilote walked on his own into the Ramada ballroom — wearing a birthday hat — as friends applauded and cheered.

He’s eating on his own. His comprehension is intact. He can speak a few words at a time. “He knows what he wants to say, but it doesn’t come out,” his wife said.

The stroke may be connected to an injury he sustained two weeks earlier. After retiring from firefighting in January 2014, Pilote started a business, Tancrede Building Movers, which jacks up buildings so foundations can be built. He was under a camp working on a foundation when he got hit in the face by a tool. With a broken nose, bleeding, he drove himself to the hospital, got stitches, and went back to work. He seemed fine, Sue Pilote said. But she said a blood clot could have evolved and contributed to the stroke.

The stroke changed everything, she said.

“All of a sudden you’re not planning anything but the next minute,” she said. “It’s like we just want him to live.”

Looking at her husband Saturday, she said, “The fact you’re turning 50 is a miracle.”

He smiled and said, “We’re very happy.”

Among those attending his party Saturday were mother and daughter Martha and April Michel of Lewiston.

April, 19, was the baby Pilote rescued 19 years ago.

“We’re here to support him,” Martha said. April described him as brave. “He has a big heart and cares about people,” Martha said.

Recalling the 1996 fire, Martha said she got her 3-year-old son out of the burning house and was about to go back to get eight-month-old April when Pilote went in.

“They said had I gone back in, I wouldn’t be here,” she said. “Had I gone back in, my son would have followed me. He didn’t just save her. He saved all of us.”

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