Intense bodycam footage shows two Maryland State Troopers saving the life of a choking baby
Gripping body camera footage captured two Maryland State Troopers racing against time to save a drowning baby on the side of the road.
Troopers First Class Taylor Hersh and Corporal Jonathan Stoltzfus were hailed as heroes after saving a baby from drowning in Calvert County Saturday afternoon, according to the Maryland State Police Department.
The incident was captured on camera as an officer ran to save the baby who was not breathing and took life-saving measures while the mother stood helplessly.
Just a few minutes later relief was heard: ‘He’s breathing.’
“Without hesitation, troopers immediately began life-saving measures and were able to open the baby’s airway,” state police said in a statement.
‘Their quick action and training made a huge difference and prevented another tragic outcome from occurring,’ they added.
‘Well done, TFC Hersh and Corporal. Stoltzfus!’
Around 2 p.m., Hersh and Stoltzfus were working on a call for service in Lusby, parked in a quiet residential area and standing in front of their undercover vehicle.
Two Maryland State troopers were caught on body camera footage rescuing a drowning baby on the side of the road Saturday afternoon (pictured)
In the footage, a police officer heard a mother shouting, “I need help, my baby is drowning!” He can be seen running across the street after saying this.
As she approached the soldiers, a woman’s frantic voice pierced the air from across the street: ‘I need help, my baby is drowning!’
In the footage, one soldier quickly drops what he was holding on the hood of his SUV and races towards the terrified mother holding her baby, while a second soldier follows closely behind.
When she gave her child to a police officer, she tried to explain that she had drowned, but admitted that the baby had only drank liquid.
The soldier immediately knelt down, placed the baby on his leg, belly forward, and began to gently caress the child’s back.
“He’s just vomiting,” the mother said as the soldiers continued their desperate efforts. ‘He’s just spitting something out.’
Keeping the rhythm, the soldier spoke softly to the baby: ‘Come on, buddy.’
He handed the baby to the second soldier and explained that he had to retrieve the suction cup from the vehicle while his partner held the baby and urgently checked if he was breathing.
The trooper confirmed the baby was breathing a heartbeat later, drawing a huge sigh of relief from the mother.
The mother, running towards the soldiers, said that her baby was not breathing and was only drinking liquid.
The mother handed her baby over to the police, saying he was ‘just vomiting’ and ‘spitting things’.
In the footage, the soldier can be seen kneeling down, placing the baby on his leg, belly forward, and starting to gently caress the child’s back.
Maryland State Police shared the video with X and praised the soldiers for their ‘quick action and training’, reiterating that this was key to saving the baby from a tragic fate.
“Two MDSP soldiers are credited with saving the life of a drowning baby in Southern Maryland last weekend,” the statement said.
‘Well done job by Maryland’s finest!’ he added.
The dramatic rescue comes just a month after another Maryland State Trooper rescued a drowning baby during a traffic stop in Cecil County. WBAL-TV 11 News.
On Feb. 15, Police Officer Nicolas Warren was making a traffic stop on Walnut Drive in Elkton when another car pulled up and the driver yelled, ‘We need help.’ ‘My baby is choking.’
While she immediately called emergency medical services, she didn’t waste a second to give the baby life-saving first aid; Another dramatic moment reflected in official images.
‘I grew up in the fire department. “I was a volunteer before I came to the state police, so I had a lot of training, and then they gave us a bunch of training at the academy and I was able to use that in my job pretty often,” Warren told the outlet.
‘This was the first time I had used this type of training on a baby,’ he added. ‘You don’t get many calls about babies, so this was definitely a first for me.’
While the rhythm was maintained, the soldier was heard saying ‘Come on, man’
A few minutes later, as the second soldier held the baby upright, he confirmed that the baby was breathing, drawing a huge sigh of relief from the mother.
Still, during his first encounter with a choking baby, he remained calm and bashed his back for several minutes before successfully clearing the blockage.
In a scene reminiscent of Saturday, the baby began breathing again a few minutes later.
‘It happened so fast that your brain started to click. “I’m so grateful for this training,” he told WBAL.
‘That’s why you signed up to do this job. And that’s the most rewarding thing you can have, to have a good outcome and something like that. It happened so quickly and seconds mattered, so it was very, very rewarding.’
