The quick actions of two New Jersey Transit police officers saved the life of a choking boy arriving from Texas by bus last month.
The unresponsive 3-year-old boy was on a charted bus with migrant families from Texas that pulled into a Trenton station at around 9:45 p.m. April 16, WABC-TV reports. The boy's father was holding the boy as he got off, and body camera footage shows him handing the child to New Jersey Transit Police Sgt. Michael Filandro and K-9 Officer Timothy Geoghegan.
"Sergeant grabbed the baby and started doing some back blows," Geoghegan told WABC. "I kind of was just trying to maintain the airway."
The officers continued to experience trouble clearing the obstruction. The child's condition worsened as he remained unresponsive and wasn't breathing.
"You could kind of see the kid's status going downhill a little bit, where he was starting to turn a little bit more blue, a little bit more gray," said Geoghegan.
The officers made the decision to drive to the hospital. With Geoghegan behind the wheel, Filandro held the boy and continued to try to revive the child.
That's when Filandro's efforts finally saw some success.
"As soon as we heard the first kind of cry, a little cry or sigh, I was just kind of like, 'Oh man, I'm glad that it's breathing now,'" he said.
The boy was then treated and evaluated at the hospital.
"An excellent job and a young life saved by New Jersey Transit Police Officers!" the department stated in a social media post, which also credited Lt. Mark Frenzel, Officer Roberto Tavares and Officer Michael Virag with helping their colleagues.
