WEBER COUNTY, Utah (ABC 4 News) – A Weber County Sheriff’s Deputy is being called a hero after saving the life of a two-week old boy.
A desperate call to 911 from Brittany Vandyke Wednesday morning after her two-week old son stopped breathing. The 911 dispatcher tried to talk Vandyke through infant CPR. The distraught mother trying her best to calm down and give directions to the neighbor she called over to help. The three were not left alone for long because no more than 2 minutes after the 911 call was made, Deputy Tyler Greenhalgh was at Vandyke’s doorstep.
“I wasn’t prepared. I wasn’t ready for the infant. He’s just so little,” said Deputy Greenhalgh. The deputy was expecting a much larger child who he thought was unconscious, but when he arrived he saw the tiny, two-week old who was turning gray from lack of oxygen.
Deputy Greenhalgh is a cross-trained officer, meaning he also is an EMT. The Weber County Sheriff’s Department has about 20-25 cross-trained officers on duty. Each one of them completed an extensive several hundred hour course, which takes about 8-12 weeks, before being certified. He says it was that training that helped saved the baby’s life.
“When I showed up, I just reacted,” said Deputy Greenhalgh. “I put my fingers on his chest and didn’t feel a heart beat. I didn’t feel him breathing and I started chest compressions. About 30 seconds into it I felt him gasp and it caught me off guard a little bit.”
Once the heart started beating, Deputy Greenhalgh said the baby’s chest pressing against his fingers and that’s when he knew the baby was starting to breathe. Deputy Greenhalgh said, “I told mom, he’s breathing, he’s trying.”
Emergency crews showed up shortly after the baby was breathing again. When he was being loaded into the ambulance he started to cry and Deputy Greenhalgh knew that was a good sign. Greenhalgh held his mother’s hand all the way to the hospital.
While he was able to handle the emergency thanks to his EMT training he says he wasn’t prepared for the emotional impact the emergency had. Greenhalgh said, “The emotion afterwards is what I’m still trying to deal with.” He’s dealing with it by staying in close contact with the family and plans to make a personal hospital visit Saturday. He says mother and baby are doing much better. The two-week old was upgraded and moved out of the ICU Thursday.
