Dallas police officer says 'divine intervention' led him to saving a boys life in a McDonalds parking lot
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – A Dallas police officer was on his break grabbing food at a McDonalds drive-thru when a baby nearby stopped breathing.
CBS 11 obtained the bodycam footage of that scary moment and how the officer jumped into action to save the baby's life.
Dallas Police Department's Senior Corporal Sergio Perez was on break from training with his K9 partner Goro. He pulled into an East Dallas McDonalds drive-thru late at night on Jan. 10 to get his dog some nuggets as a reward, when he heard someone yelling for help.
"So I pulled up to see what was going on and a female came around the corner holding a child on her shoulders and she was yelling and screaming that she needed to get her child to the hospital because he was not breathing," said Perez.
As he tried to calm the frantic mother he jumped into action and started CPR. You can see him on another officer's body camera performing chest compressions on the 1-year-old boy.
"My training kicked in, I stayed calm, just kept talking to the child and reassuring mom that everything was gonna be okay," said Perez.
Perez said after less than a minute of CPR the boy started breathing again. "He's breathing ma'am," Perez could be heard announcing to the boy's mother.
In the body cam footage from that night, you can see one officer holding the boys hand as Perez assists the boy who started having a seizure. Perez then rushed the boy to a Dallas Fire Rescue ambulance.
"Being a father myself, I'm glad I was able to be there," said Perez.
Police say the boy is doing well now. And Perez is being called a hero.
"All in a day's work, on my birthday by the way," said Perez.
He says divine intervention put him at the right place at the right time.
"I believe that god put me here that night for that reason because I normally dont give Goro nuggets but that night I said since we were doing real good on training I said you know what, my partner deserves some nuggets tonight," said Perez.