A police officer in suburban Posen is being hailed as a hero after he helped to revive a baby who had stopped breathing earlier this week.
Police say that on Monday, they received a call of an infant who had stopped breathing.
Detective Matt Leveille was the first member of law enforcement to arrive on the scene.
“With a 10-month-old, you always get nervous,” he said. “Any time a child is involved, it’s a little more scary.”
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The baby’s mother, father and grandmother all called 911 after the infant fell off his bed and lost consciousness.
“The family was going to drive him to the hospital, but they saw us and decided to flag us down instead,” Leveille said.
In a dramatic sequence of events that were caught on camera, the detective is seen holding the baby, performing infant CPR.
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“I held him with my left hand and started doing chest compressions with my right hand, just using my two fingers,” he said.
With an ambulance en route, he says that he felt the baby begin to breathe, and then the infant began crying.
“As soon as we heard him start crying, we knew that things were going to be good,” he said.
An ambulance arrived on the scene just moments later, whisking the baby to an area hospital.
Leveille says he has since spoken with the family, and it appears that the baby is recovering well.
He says that he credits his infant CPR training class with allowing him to stay cool under pressure.
“It’s one thing to train for this stuff and go through it in class, but when you’re actually able to do it and the baby starts breathing again, it’s one of the most rewarding things,” he said. “I was just glad that I could keep that family whole.”
