Bodycam video shows NJ Transit officers save choking child's life: "Stay with me, buddy!"
TRENTON, N.J. (CBS) — Body camera video shows New Jersey Transit Police officers rescuing a 3-year-old child who was choking.
New Jersey Transit Police posted the video on social media on Tuesday, saying it showed officers springing into action at around 9:45 p.m. on April 16 at Trenton Station.
Police officers responded to a call for help coming from a migrant bus that had arrived from Texas, according to NJ Transit officials. The private bus was de-boarding and the passengers were set to catch a train to New York City.
When officers arrived they saw the child being carried off the bus. The officers noticed the child was choking but initial CPR efforts did not dislodge the obstruction.
"Sgt. [Michael Filandro] grabbed the baby and started doing some back blows. I was kinda just trying to maintain the airway and watch to see what was going on with the kid," K-9 Officer Timothy Geoghegan said in a press conference Tuesday afternoon.
The video begins with a passenger shouting for help in Spanish and others calling for an ambulance to take the child to a hospital.
"He's turning blue," one officer can be heard saying about the child.
Already turning blue from a lack of oxygen, police knew every second counted.
"You can kinda see the kid's status going downhill a little bit where he started to turn a little bit more blue, a little bit more gray and that's when the sergeant -- we tried to get him down on the ground to perform CPR, still turning gray," Geoghegan said. "We saw that wasn't really working and it was just determined that it was easier to put the kid in the car."
The video then shows Geoghegan carry the child into a police cruiser and begin racing toward a nearby hospital with emergency lights and sirens on. While Geoghegan is driving, another officer, identified as Sgt. Michael Filandro, is in the passenger seat with the child in his lap and performing chest compressions.
"Stay with me, OK?" an officer can be heard saying to the child.
As they exit a highway toward the hospital, the blockage seems to be dislodged.
By the time officers had dropped the boy off at the hospital in Trenton, he was once again breathing and responsive.
"He's moving," Filandro says. "There we go, buddy."
They then exit the police vehicle at a hospital.
"He's breathing again...we just got him, we got whatever it was out, he's moving," an officer said.
"I think officer Geoghegan and I both had a huge sigh of relief, yeah, at that point, yeah, when we realized that the measures we took were successful," Filandro said.
While speaking to reporters Tuesday, the officers were quick to dismiss the notion that they are heroes.
Instead the two credit the team around them for the successful outcome. Both said they were glad to be at the right place at the right time.
The department says it salutes each officer involved in the rescue.
