Officers save choking 3-month-old baby by using LifeVac device
By Jamie Mayes
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LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WLKY) — Three Clarksville Police officers are being credited with helping save a 3-month-old baby who was barely breathing during a medical emergency Saturday afternoon.
Body-camera video shows the officers rushing into a home and immediately working to clear the baby’s airway. One officer delivered back blows while another retrieved a LifeVac, a portable suction device designed to remove an obstruction from a person’s airway.
Clarksville Police Chief Nathan Walls said the department equipped its officers with the devices about two years ago after his wife first brought them to his attention.
“I had never heard of it,” Walls said. “Actually, my wife had seen a commercial. She looked into it, and she said, ‘You guys need to be carrying these.’”
The department researched the device and decided to provide one to every officer.
“We equipped all our officers with them, and you just knew that at some point you were going to need it,” Walls said.
That moment came Saturday. Officer Dalton Fitzgerald, Officer Colton Foreman, and Officer Joel Sellers arrived at the scene. An officer used the LifeVac, and the baby soon began crying. This was a sign the child was breathing normally again.
Walls said the family’s decision to call for help quickly, along with the officers’ training and access to the right equipment, made a critical difference.
“To be able to, in that moment, remember your training that you may have done a while back and be able to stay on task, it’s quite remarkable,” Walls said.
Walls praised the officers for remaining focused during the high-pressure emergency.
“It’s kind of what we’ve come to expect,” he said. “And I sure hate to think that anybody is taking that for granted.”
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