My VIP for this week is Officer Brendan Foster of the Warren Police Department in Michigan. About 6:00 p.m. last Tuesday, Foster was on patrol when he saw a Chevrolet Camaro speeding, about 80 mph in a 45-mph zone. Foster did not know why the driver was speeding, but he discovered the reason as soon as he pulled over the driver.
The
driver and passenger were frantic as they explained that their 18-month-old
baby was not breathing, so they were rushing him to the hospital. As shown on
video, Fraser took the child out of the vehicle and noticed that he was turning
blue with his eyes rolling into the back of his head. Fraser picked up the baby
and gave him several blows to his back. The baby spit up and began to breathe
again. With the baby recovering, the officer turned his attention to the relatives
and calmed them. Paul Sacca wrote the following about the situation.
Fraser attempted to calm the panicked
relatives, “He’s breathing, look at him, he’s OK.”
Fraser said, “It was a big relief, for
sure. When the child started breathing, and you saw the color come back around
its lips.”
Additional officers arrived at the scene and
rushed the baby to a local hospital, and was later transferred to St. John
Hospital. The baby has been released from the hospital and is recovering with
his family….
“Officer Fraser’s actions on this traffic
stop are nothing short of heroic,” Warren Police Commissioner William Dwyer
said in a statement, according to the Detroit News. “This incident shows that
police work and traffic stops are not always about writing tickets or making
arrests.”
“In this case, what started off as a
traffic stop for speeding resulted in Officer Fraser saving a child’s life,”
the commissioner said. “Officer Fraser relied on his training, communication
skills, and compassion as he worked to resuscitate the child. He was also able
to calm down the child’s family members who were understandably frantic over
the situation.”
Officer
Fraser is a hero. This situation is a good example for the importance of having
police officers on the streets. We never know when we will face an emergency,
and police officers are trained for emergencies.
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