Florida deputy jumps to 3-month-old baby's rescue while driving back home from work
Law enforcement authorities said that a deputy officer in Florida saved a baby's life after a mother told him her son was "unresponsive."
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook said that K9 Deputy Jeremie Nix was "flagged down" by another driver when he was driving home after work on Wednesday evening.
The motorist flagged down Nix at around 5:30 pm as he sat in his police car at a stoplight.
According to the sheriff's office, Nix was told by the mother that her 3-month-old baby, named Kingston “was completely unresponsive." The sheriff's office said that when Nix made a U-turn to meet the motorist, a woman exited the passenger side of the vehicle holding an unresponsive infant and talking frantically on the phone.
"You can tell he's completely lifeless," Nix told WKMG-TV. "She just hands him to me and the first words out of her mouth were, 'Don't let my baby die.'"
“After performing several life-saving measures on the child and not seeing any improvement, Deputy Nix decided to put the child in his own patrol car and rush him to Ocala Regional Medical Center,” the sheriff’s office said.
The sheriff's office shared the dashcam footage which caught the incident, showing two women getting out of the car. Nix was handed the baby by one of the two women who came out of the vehicle and he immediately jumped to action. The officer is then heard saying over the radio that he was "not waiting on medics" as he headed back to his car. He also said that he was going to the “emergency room with the baby.”
As Nix attempted to revive the toddler, he took one breath, but it was very faint. His mother watched, clutching her chest as she spoke into the phone.
“I heard this one breath that was very faint,” Nix recalled, according to the Ocala Star-Banner. “I turned and I remember thinking, ‘I don’t hear sirens. I don’t hear nobody coming. I don’t have time.’”
"I didn't have time," Nix said. "This baby didn't have time to wait on an ambulance."
“I just gripped him as tight as I could and I put it in drive and just went,” he added.
The outlet reported that Nechole Crowell, Kingston's mother, said that the deputy “just took off and he left us there and I just followed suit." Nix used his siren on the way to the Ocala Regional Medical Center.
Although the hospital was only a half-mile away from the scene, Nix rushed to the emergency room.
The sheriff's office further added that Nix arrived at the hospital with the baby shortly after the incident and hospital authorities were quick to start his treatment.
“We are happy to report that Baby Kingston is doing very well and doctors say he will make a full recovery!!” the post said. “Doctors also said that because of K9 Deputy Nix's actions, Baby Kingston is alive today.”
“We are tremendously proud of Deputy Nix and we can already see that he and Baby Kingston will have a deep connection that will last a lifetime!!” the sheriff's office continued.
On Thursday, the Marion County Sheriff's Office reported that the 3-month-old is alive and will make a full recovery.
Marion County police then updated their post by saying that the infant had finally been released from the hospital and is now "happy and healthy!!"
"Doctors also said that because of K9 Deputy Nix's actions, Baby Kingston is alive today," the department wrote on Facebook. "We are tremendously proud of Deputy Nix and we can already see that he and Baby Kingston will have a deep connection that will last a lifetime!"
"In my 17 years of doing this job, that was the most scary, emotional and rewarding day ever," Nix said. "I remember praying, thanking God for putting me in the right place at the right time for the right reason."
The grateful mother thanked Nix and God on Thursday in a Facebook post.
"I just wanted the world to know how great this officer is, & how GREAT GOD is," she wrote. "Not all officers are bad, he's one of many good guys."
It is unclear as of now as to what caused the tot to become numb.