Body Camera Video Shows South Carolina Police Officer Save Choking Baby Girl

BELTON, South Carolina -- Newly released body camera video shows a Belton police officer save a choking baby earlier this week.

Kiersten Nivens was giving her her four-month-old daughter, Maryelle, Tylenol at their home on Monday when she suddenly took a deep breath and started choking on it, according to WHNS-TV.

Nivens told the news station that she started to panic after she realized her cellphone had a dead battery and went outside to plead with neighbors to call 911.

"I had her arms and I was just calling for help," she said. "She just stopped breathing because she was choking so bad."

The neighbors flagged down Belton Police Cpl. Derrall Foster, who quickly grabbed Maryelle from her mother's arms and went to work.

“She was not blue yet, but she was not breathing. She was very limp," Foster told WHNS-TV. "I saw my two-year-old as if it were her, and I knew we had to take care of the situation."

Video Foster's body camera shows the officer performing the Heimlich Maneuver on the baby.

“The child wasn’t really responding, kinda lethargic. Took the child from them, laid the child face down at an angle and started patting her back," he said.

Right when Foster began to hear sirens from an arriving EMS crew, he also heard the reassuring sound of Maryelle crying.

“Oh God it was very relieving.I’m just doing my job, that’s all I was doing," Foster said.

Maryelle and Nivens are now both fine at home and hope their first choking scare was their last.

“I’m definitely so thankful for him and for all the first responders who came," Nivens said.