Dallas County Sheriff's Deputy Keith Rose saves child's life in traffic

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The parents of a 4-year-old are praising the quick actions of Dallas County Sheriff's Deputy Keith Rose after he saved their daughter's life in the middle of a traffic intersection. 

Deputy Rose sprung into action on May 31 while sitting in his car at the intersection of E. Camp Wisdom just before the bridge over I-35. That's when Daniella Armijo got out of her car and ran toward him while holding her child. The girl was limp, and had a white foamy substance coming from her mouth. 

He jumped out of his squad car, grabbed the child and began CPR, patting her back to clear any possible obstructions and doing chest compressions. After several chest compressions, the child regained consciousness. 

"I was relieved to see her moving around and breathing and of course my concern was that mom didn't squeeze her too tight that she would be unconscious again," said Rose. 

Deputy Rose returned her to her mother and called for an ambulance. He continued to monitor the girl and let Armijo and her daughter sit in the back of the squad car with the air conditioner running.

Several people stopped by to help and eventually moved the cars off the roadway and into a gas station parking lot. 

Once the fire department and ambulance arrived, Armijo and her daughter were escorted to the ambulance where the child was evaluated by the paramedics. Her father, Francisco Armijo arrived shortly afterward. 

The child was eventually transported to Children's Hospital for further evaluation.  

Rose credits his training for saving this girl's life, "I work in the warrant section and we train quite a bit and quite often we throw in officer down rescue type training and that kind of helps out with medical and CPR and different types of situations where an officer might go down."

In his nearly 35 years on the job, Rose has seen a lot, but never quite had an experience like this, "For me all the years that I've been out here this is right at the top just glad I was at the right place at the right time."