Choking infant saved by rookie TSA agent at New Jersey airport, video shows
A choking 2-month-old was saved by a rookie Transportation Security Administration officer at a New Jersey airport, video shows.
When Cecilia Morales heard screaming pleas for help, her fast reaction prevented what could have been a grim outcome at Newark Liberty International Airport, according to the TSA.
Two months after being hired by the agency, Morales is seen jumping over a conveyor belt at a security checkpoint to reach the frantic mother holding her baby boy who stopped breathing in a video shared by the TSA on Dec. 23.
Initially, the young mom found her son wasn’t breathing when she took him out of his carrier seat at the checkpoint, the TSA said in a news release. Her attempts to rouse him weren’t working.
The mom “was so nervous and I knew if I didn’t get over there, it wasn’t going to be a good outcome,” Morales said in the statement.
The video shows Morales being handed the choking infant, then using her 10 years of emergency medical technician experience to perform a life-saving Heimlich maneuver.
She placed the baby face down on her arm and patted him on the back, the TSA said. After no response, a second try got him breathing again.
“The mother was too nervous and in shock to hold her son, so I carried the infant through the walk through metal detector,” Morales said.
“She’s truly a hero who reacted instinctively to save the infant,” Lisa Farbstein, a TSA spokesperson, told McClatchy News in an email.
Morales served several towns as an EMT in northern New Jersey and had performed the Heimlich on adults and children, according to TSA officials.
This was the first time she saved an infant with the life-saving maneuver and after watching herself in the video, Morales called it “mind-blowing.”
“It was the first time I’ve ever seen myself in action,” she said, adding that she felt her “training and experience just took over.”
After the baby’s rescue, pediatric EMT arrived to provide oxygen, according to the TSA.
“Officer Morales’s quick reaction and actions helped ensure that this family will have a happy holiday season,” Thomas Carter, TSA’s federal security director for the state, said in the statement. “Her actions were inspiring.”
This story was originally published December 27, 2021 at 10:40 AM with the headline "Choking infant saved by rookie TSA agent at New Jersey airport, video shows."
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