Off-Duty Officer Notices Woman On Side Of Road With Choking Infant, Performs CPR As Kid Turns Blue

Aug 27, 2021 by apost team

Police officers and other first responders are there to ensure the public's safety but even when they're not on the clock, they're still always on the lookout to lend a helping hand when they can. A police officer from Livermore, California demonstrated this last week when on his day off, he stopped to help out a desperate mother by the side of the road — and it's incredibly lucky that he did.

The woman had pulled over and was holding her baby and was clearly distressed. Officer Gilbert Troche of the San Pablo Police Department was driving by with his family, but when he saw the woman he knew he had to stop and help, however he could.

He told news station KRON-TV: “She appeared to be crying hysterically. She was holding her baby kind of against her shoulder, so I stopped the car, I jumped out, and I went over to her.” Luckily he did, as he immediately saw that the baby's cheeks were turning blue and it wasn't breathing.

Officer Troche instantly began to perform CPR on the infant while he instructed the mother to clear her baby's mouth using her finger. In a video released by the news station, the officer can be seen delivering back blows to the infant, as he looks back at his family in the car and tells them to call 9-1-1 for help. 

Thankfully, within a few minutes the baby threw up and its throat was cleared, after which it immediately began crying — a welcome sound considering the incredibly stressful situation that had just taken place.

Officer Troche's local police, the San Pablo Police Department, posted about the incident on their Facebook page, writing:

“This past weekend our very own Officer Troche was out enjoying his time off with his family when they came across a mother stopped on the road in a state of distress."

The post continued:

“Officer Troche realized her baby was having a medical emergency and he leapt into action. Officer Troche began life-saving measures on the infant and was able to get the baby breathing again."

“Officer Troche’s heroic actions are nothing short of a miracle and we are extremely proud to have him as a member of our Police Department. His quick thinking and decisive action no doubt saved a life.”

Members of the public and those who know Officer Troche are calling him a hero but he has brushed it aside, explaining :

“I definitely don’t feel like a hero. I think that anybody in that situation that [had] seen her there as distraught as she was would have probably tried to do the same thing.”

Nevertheless, Officer Troche's willingness to help a stranger without knowing what was going on and his quick-thinking actions were a matter of life and death that day.

This incident is an example of how if you ever see someone in need, it can never hurt to stop and check if you can help out in some way, especially if you are trained in CPR or have experience with emergency situations. Sometimes things happen so quickly that there's no time for an ambulance to arrive and you could end up saving a life.

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What a hero. Do you know of any other heroic stories that have happened to you or someone you know? Pass this on to your friends and family so everyone can read about Officer Troche's lifesaving good deed.