Officer rescues choking child after nanny struck by car
Published: March 29, 2006
The baby was blue, and the nanny was sprawled in the middle of Second Avenue with a bone sticking out of her leg.
This was not a scenario covered at the Police Academy, but Officer Edgar Louisjuste’s response hit all the right notes. Louisjuste rushed the choking child to a friend’s van, called an ambulance for the nanny, and gently patted the year-old boy’s back until he vomited _ and started breathing again.
“I started yelling, ‘He’s back! Thank God, he’s back!”‘ Louisjuste said after the baby was safely in the hands of doctors at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. “He’s a very strong little boy.”
Both the child and his injured nanny were at the same hospital. Hospital spokesman John Rodgers said they would not release their names or conditions. The parents of the child, through Rodgers, declined requests for an interview.
The dramatic rescue began around 9:20 a.m. when the child began choking on an orange inside an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, said police spokeswoman Detective Theresa Farello. The nanny, clutching the boy, ran out of the apartment and headed for the hospital several blocks away.
As the nanny ran onto Second Avenue, she was struck by a passing truck. Louisjuste said he heard the thump and ran to the scene, where he discovered the injured woman still clutching the child.
“Save the baby!” she shouted, despite the fact that she was bleeding and a bone in her leg was visible. Louisjuste was soon joined by a retired police officer who worked in the neighborhood as a building manager, and the pair swung into action.
Louisjuste grabbed the choking baby while ex-officer Danny Rivera started his van for a quick trip to the hospital five blocks away. During the ride, Louisjuste _ the father of three kids of his own _ held the baby at an angle and pushed slowly on the child’s back until the boy threw up and his airway became cleared.
Rivera, using lights and a siren from his job as a volunteer firefighter in Pennsylvania, quickly reached the hospital after driving the wrong way down a one-way street. Louisjuste rushed the baby into the emergency room, where nurses and doctors took over.
When the child’s parents arrived at the hospital, the father and the officer both broke down in tears.
“They thanked me,” said Louisjuste, a former Marine. “We both started crying. The macho stuff was out the window.”
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