Posted by Anthony Zurita / NorthJersey.com (July 17, 2020) on Jul 20th 2020
NJ Transit police officer saves newborn baby's life with CPR, swift trip to the hospital
NJ Transit police officer saves newborn baby's life with CPR, swift trip to the hospital
NorthJersey.com
July 17, 2020
Bodycam footage shows an NJ Transit police officer performing CPR on a baby born at Newark Penn Station Tuesday.
Watch the body camera footage at: https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/nation/2020/07/17/nj-transit-police-officer-performs-life-saving-cpr-newborn/5458954002/
A newborn baby was on the brink of death before a New Jersey Transit Police Officer took life-saving measures to revive the infant.
On Tuesday, NJ Transit police responded to Newark Penn Station and found a woman in a restroom cradling her unresponsive newborn in her arms, transit police said in a statement. The baby's skin was gray and the baby wasn't breathing, which is when Officer Bryan Richards sprang into action.
Richards immediately began chest compressions on the newborn, who was wrapped in a sweater and called for an ambulance but soon realized that the baby needed to be taken to the hospital immediately.
Officer Bryan Richards of the New Jersey Transit Police Department speaks at a press conference at Newark Penn Station, where he began life-saving measures on a newborn baby that was unresponsive in a restroom on July 14. Photo taken on July 17, 2020 / Anthony Zurita/NorthJersey.com
Bodycam footage posted by transit police shows Richards moving quickly through Newark Penn Station carefully cradling the baby. Richards then got into a police car with Officer Alberto Nunes, who put on his sirens and rushed to University Hospital.
The baby remained unresponsive as Richards continued CPR but slowly the newborn began to show signs of life and even started crying.
"There we go, good girl," Richards could be heard saying on bodycam footage.
Watch the body camera footage at: https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/nation/2020/07/17/nj-transit-police-officer-performs-life-saving-cpr-newborn/5458954002/
"It was high stress and high adrenaline," Richards said at a press conference on Friday, "but once I had the baby crying it was a very big sigh of relief."
When the officers arrived at the hospital, Richards rushed the baby to the emergency entrance, which is where the footage ends.
"I was so happy and so excited that I heard the baby crying because I knew that it was a sign that the baby was breathing," Nunes said at the press conference.
Officer Alberto Nunes of the New Jersey Transit Police Department speaks at a press conference at Newark Penn Station, where he assisted in saving an unresponsive newborn by driving fellow officer Bryan Richards, who was performing CPR on the baby, to University Hospital on July 14. Photo taken on July 17, 2020 / Anthony Zurita/NorthJersey.com
The baby is now "doing well," according to the statement. The mother is being treated as well.
Richards, a father of a 7-month-old child, said that the rescue hit home for him but that he was prepared for a moment like this, serving as an emergency medical technician for the past 12 years.
"An excellent job and another precious life saved by New Jersey Transit Police Officers," transit police said in the statement.
Both officers were open to keeping in contact with the baby as it grows older.
"It's something I would like to do," Richards said. "In 15-20 years, that could very well be [the case]."
Anthony Zurita is a breaking news reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to all the major news happening in North Jersey, subscribe here. To get breaking news directly to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter.
Email: zuritaa@northjersey.com Twitter: @AnthonyRZurita