A pair of rookie NYPD officers recently saved a 10-month-old baby who was choking at his home in Queens. Bodycam footage shows the mother, Asia Rodriguez, handing the boy, Makai, to one of the officers, who clears his airway by patting his back. Another officer then holds and comforts the baby before he is taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where he was treated and later released.
Rodriguez says she called 911 when she realized her son was in distress. Now that Makai is back home and doing well, she hopes to meet the officers to thank them in person. “If I could shake their hands and hug them, I would,” she says, “My son is here because of them.”
The officers, both with less than two years on the job, had recently completed NYPD CPR training. “They saved his life,” Makai’s father Brandon Laboy says. “You can’t understate how good the training is.” Police say the child was found in an unresponsive state due to an airway obstruction, but quick action by the officers made the difference.