An Atlanta Police Department (APD) SWAT officer saved a 4-month-old baby after administering CPR during a chance encounter on Friday. SWAT officers typically respond to “dangerous situations, challenging details, riots, and other potentially deadly incidents,” but giving “CPR to a 4-month-old baby is not a routine part of a SWAT officer’s day,” Atlanta Police Department said in a Facebook post along with body-worn footage of the tense moment.
Special Police Officer (SPO) Robert Oden, who was patrolling the area of the Martin Luther King Corridor on Friday afternoon, followed a vehicle that was driving down the roadway with its hazard lights on and its horn “frantically blowing” to “investigate if a possible emergency was at hand.”
The vehicle parked at a nearby fire station, at which point the occupants jumped out and approached Oden for help. In Oden’s body-worn camera footage, a woman can be seen approaching the officer and handing him the 4-month-old baby, who “was not breathing” at the time, according to police. In SPO Oden’s body-worn camera footage, a woman can be seen approaching the officer and handing him the 4-month-old baby, who “was not breathing” at the time, according to police.
(Atlanta Police Department) Oden checked the infant’s pulse but was not able to detect one, at which point the SPO “notified radio dispatch of the situation and began administering CPR.” The footage from Oden’s camera appears to show the baby begin to breathe, move and make noises as the officer administers CPR. Oden successfully gained a pulse before EMS arrived at the scene and transported the baby to a hospital. Oden quickly notifies radio dispatch of the emergency and starts performing CPR on the infant, who is placed on the grass outside the fire station.
Oden was not able to detect the baby’s pulse, according to the APD statement. SPO Oden successfully gained a pulse before EMS arrived at the scene and transported the baby to a hospital. (Atlanta Police Department) In the footage, Oden is seen alternating between using his fingers and thumb for the chest compressions and leaning in several times to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the baby. Oden tells one of the bystanders to knock on the door of the fire station to see if anybody is inside.
“Officers never know what to expect during their shift, they just show up ready to act,” APD wrote on Facebook. “SPO Oden[‘s] actions were quick, calm, caring, and professional. This is another example of the heroic work that officers do on any given day. His response reflects a high level of training, readiness, and compassion. We could not be prouder of him in this critical moment.”
The Department added that “Atlanta is safer with SPO Oden” and its “team of professional, responsive, and caring officers who do this work and patrol [Atlanta’s] streets, 24/7, and 365 days a week. “It is indeed a calling,” APD said. “Grady EMS took custody of the child and rushed him to the hospital for further treatment,” it added.
