A Florida police officer is being called a hero after saving the life of a 14-month-old girl who was choking.
Video from a Palm Beach Gardens security camera released to the public on Friday shows Ana Graham attempting to save her daughter, one-year-old Lucia Graham, from choking on a chicken nugget.
The child’s mother, Ana Jaramillo de Graham, snatches her daughter from her stroller and desperately tries to dislodge the food. After failing to do so, she yells for help, drawing the attention of bystanders and city police officers Robert Ayala and Rafael Guadalupe, who then stepped in to save the choking toddler.
“Officer Ayala stepped in, I handed her to him. He sat down and so quickly started performing what he needed to do to make sure she was OK. And I sat on the floor panicked. I just wanted to make sure she was OK,” said Graham.
The video depicts Ayala grabbing the baby, turning her face down and striking her on the back. When that doesn’t work, he strikes harder and the nugget pops out. During the July 21 ordeal, officer Guadalupe was calming Graham.
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Graham tells The Palm Beach Post the officers are “angels from heaven.” Ayala says his reaction was instinctive from his training.
The moment when Lucia begins choking on the chicken nugget, which were purchased from Chick-Fil-A, can be seen in the video.
“She looked at me with her eyes wide open. She tried to do something with her mouth — she couldn’t cough, couldn’t do anything,” Graham told ABC Action News.
WATCH: What to do when your child is choking
Graham added that that she’d initially tried a technique taught to her by her pediatrician, but that in her panicked state, she may not have been performing the technique hard enough, at which point she started screaming for help.
“They knew exactly what to do to save her life. So, thank you so much officers — because if it wasn’t for you guys, we probably, definitely wouldn’t be here with our Lucia,” Graham told ABC.
Despite the close call, Lucia has been declared completely healthy. Graham recommends to parents that they all take classes so they can properly administer CPR to children if they ever find themselves in a similar situation.
On Thursday evening, both Ayala and Guadalupe were honoured by Palm Beach Gardens council along with Lucia’s mother and father.
“They’re our heroes. They are the best, best angels we could’ve had that day at the mall,” Graham said.
— With files from the Associated Press.
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