WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah -- A West Valley City baby was unresponsive and barely breathing, but thanks to a quick acting detective, the little girl is alive and well.
The detective is credited for saving the 9-month-old girl’s life. When he got to the scene, training kicked in and within seconds he got the little girl breathing again.
The child's mother told FOX 13 Wednesday that having to call 911 was the scariest moment of her life. She said she doesn’t know what she would have done, or what could have happened to her baby if police hadn’t arrived so fast.
It all started Tuesday, when 9-month-old Billy wasn’t feeling well. She was teething and got a fever so high it caused her to have a seizure. When Mickenzey Bennion found Billy in her crib, she said she realized something was terribly wrong.
In the 911 call released to FOX 13 News, Bennion is heard telling the dispatcher: “My daughter, she’s not breathing.”
Bennion goes on to say: “I picked her up and she was all stiff like, I can't even explain it.”
Detective Tyler Longman hasn’t been with the patrol division of the West Valley City Police Department for years, but he was at the right place at the right time. He was returning to the station from a training exercise when he heard the call and realized he was closest to the scene. When he arrived, he was met by the family’s three German shepherds. He told FOX 13 News he wasn’t comfortable with them, but knew a baby needed help.
Bennion explained: “She was just blue, purple, she turned from every color from gray to purple to blue.”
Longman recalled: “Because it was a chocking call I immediately did a procedure to clear the airway of the baby and then I gave the baby a thrust on the back.”
Bennion: “It seemed like that's what woke her up. She's like, ‘Ok now I’m awake’ and then she started crying.”
Longman: “When I was holding that little baby, for that moment she was mine, and to hear her cry and to come back: That was a great relief.”
Billy is doing fine now. Mother and baby got a chance to thank Longman Wednesday afternoon.
