Page 51 - FOP March 2017 Newsletter

Of cers’ quick actions save another life
n BY NICK SWEDBERG
Officers David Watson and Paul Moreno were just two blocks away when they got the call in February about a baby choking and bleeding from her mouth. Within moments, they were in front of a two-story home on Huron Street. The ambu- lance was still minutes away.
“The grandmother was out on the porch going frantic,” Watson said.
He and his partner jumped from their squad car and bolted inside the home to find a man who appeared to be the 9-month-old’s father holding the limp child. The baby’s breathing “was more like a really faint whistle,” Watson said.
The father told them the child had swallowed some- thing, but he didn’t know what. They would later learn that the baby’s sister had accidentally given her sibling a small toy. But all the two officers knew at the time was that blood was pouring from the baby’s mouth and she wasn’t breathing.
Watson said he flipped the child over, cradled her head in his hand and started whacking her on the back. By the second or third strike, he heard a popping noise. The baby immediately coughed and started screaming.
Watson tried to sweep out whatev- er was stuck in the baby’s throat, but to no avail. The paramedics rushed the child to West Suburban Hospital. She was then taken to Lurie Chil- dren’s Hospital, where doctors finally were able to remove the obstruction. “It was a little toy house plate, maybe about the size of a half dollar, with a tiny cupcake on it,” Watson said.
“Until they pulled that toy out at Children’s, I was scared,” he said, re- calling what he felt holding the limp baby. “Once I found out it was a little plate, I couldn’t believe it. I was in shock.” Watson, a father himself, said he had “no idea how that
child got that toy down her throat.”
The baby pulled through and, after several days, they
heard from the family that she was doing fine, Watson said.
The past six months have been intense for Moreno and Watson, a combat veteran who served in the Marine Corps in Afghanistan. In October, the pair responded to a call of shots fired near the 1100 block of North Lawler Av- enue, Watson said. Their quick response proved beyond critical for the shooting victim. “We saved a kid with a belt and a stick. We’ve kind of stepped into our own messes in the last six months,” Watson said dryly. d
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