South Carolina deputy becomes child’s godfather 1 year after saving her life

Last June, he saved her life. A year later, he became her godfather.

Deputy William Kimbro pulled over a speeding car last June in Berkeley County, South Carolina. What he encountered is likely not what he expected — a distressed mother and her 12-day-old daughter, Ryleigh, who wasn’t breathing.

Kimbro saved her life by performing CPR on the little one, handing her off to medical personnel.

But that wasn’t the last he saw of her.

A year later, this June, Kimbo attended Ryleigh’s first birthday bearing gifts. On Sunday night, Ryleigh’s family had a gift for him.

Her family arrived at his door with baby Ryleigh in tow.

“I look over her shoulder and there’s Miss Ryleigh and her mom walking in, and I said, ‘You got to be kidding me,'” he told local broadcaster WCIV.

“I was able to finally scratch it off, and underneath the scratcher it says, ‘Will you be my godfather?’ My jaw just dropped and I just had this look on my face, and I looked at Ryleigh, who was sitting on her grandma’s lap, and I said, ‘Absolutely.'”

His wife got the same card, asking her to be the one-year-old’s godmother.

1:13 Couple adopt baby over Zoom after meeting him in NICU

“What was the reason that I actually went down that street? Because there were five, six, seven other streets I could’ve gone down. As the saying goes, God works in mysterious ways.”

In harrowing video footage of the incident shared to Facebook, Kimbro can be seen holding the small baby in his hands and tapping her chest.

“Come on, baby, come on baby,” he can be heard saying. “I’m worried about her because she starts breathing and then stops.”

Ryleigh’s mother explained that she thought she was choking on milk. He continued to rub and tap on the baby’s chest to help with blood circulation.

Eventually, the baby began to breathe again and Kimbro could feel her tiny heartbeat revving back to life.

“That baby was living no matter what I had to do,” he said in an interview that week, per The Washington Post.

Kimbro, WSOC-TV reports, was awarded the sheriff’s office’s Life-Saving Medal after saving Ryleigh.

—

meaghan.wray@globalnews.ca