Two Bronx Officers Were Flagged Down by a Crying Mom Holding Her Unconscious Baby, and One Slapped His Back More Than a Dozen Times Until He Cried

NYPD Officers Julio Arias and Karolyn Abreu Garcia were driving to another call in the Bronx on Sept. 26 when a good Samaritan waved them down near 168th Street and the Grand Concourse. On the sidewalk, a 21-year-old mother was crying and holding her baby boy, who was unconscious and not breathing.

Arias took the baby, turned him face down and started striking his back. He kept going, more than a dozen times, until the baby finally let out a cry. The whole rescue was caught on the officers’ body cameras.

A mother’s worst moment on a Bronx sidewalk

The baby’s mother, Janibel Montano, had found her son face down and not breathing in his crib, NY1 reported. She carried him outside, where strangers flagged down the passing marked patrol car from the 44th Precinct.

Reports give the boy’s age as 10 or 11 months, and spell his first name Jheyler or Jhyler. The New York Daily News account republished by Police1 said he was wearing one striped sock and a dinosaur costume when the officers reached him.

While Arias worked on the baby, Abreu Garcia radioed for an ambulance. NY1 reported that something came loose with the back blows, and the baby began crying and breathing again. The cause of the choking is still not known.

A new dad who knew what was at stake

Arias has been an NYPD officer since 2022 and is a father of two, including a two-month-old, according to the Daily News story republished by Officer.com. He credited both his police training and the recent birth of his own child for how he handled those seconds.

Arias told NY1 that because he has two children of his own, he knew right away he was looking at every parent’s worst nightmare. He told the Daily News that the moment he heard the baby cry, he knew the boy was going to be all right. He also said he apologized to the baby afterward for hitting him so hard, and was too focused to notice what the boy spit up onto his shoe.

Abreu Garcia, who joined the force in 2021, told NY1 the officers were grateful they were able to help.

Back at the precinct, a family’s gratitude

About a week later, on Friday, Oct. 2, the family came to the 44th Precinct stationhouse near Yankee Stadium to thank the two officers in person. Speaking in Spanish, Montano told the Daily News she felt happy and, above all, grateful.

To NY1, she described the relief of seeing her son breathe again as “relief from heaven to earth.”

Moments like this one have played out in other families’ lives too, including the Studio City toddler who met the firefighters who brought her back after she was found without a pulse beside a pool.

What first-aid experts say to do for a choking baby

The officers’ quick back blows follow the same steps first-aid groups teach parents. For an infant who is choking and can’t cough, cry or breathe, the American Red Cross says to call 911, then lay the baby face down along the forearm with the thigh for support and the head lower than the body.

The Red Cross says to give 5 firm back blows between the shoulder blades with the heel of the hand, then turn the baby face up, head still lower than the body, and give 5 quick chest thrusts about 1 1/2 inches deep using two fingers just below the nipple line. Those rounds repeat until the baby coughs or cries, or becomes unresponsive. If the baby stops responding, the Red Cross says to lay the baby on a firm, flat surface and start CPR.

Guidance from the American College of Emergency Physicians, shared by the Tennessee family resource site kidcentral tn, adds an important caution. A baby with a strong cough is usually moving the blockage on their own, so the advice is to let them keep coughing and to start back blows only when the baby can’t breathe at all, or has only a weak cough and is losing color.

Signs of trouble, according to the Red Cross, include a weak or silent cough, a high-pitched squeak, pale or bluish skin and a panicked look. Every one of those calls for 911.

How pediatricians say families can lower the risk

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents and caregivers take a certified CPR and first aid course. It says high-risk foods such as hot dogs, whole grapes, popcorn, nuts, hard or sticky candy, raw carrot sticks and chunks of meat or cheese should be kept from children until age 4 or older, or cut into very small pieces, with food for babies and young children cut no larger than one-half inch.

The AAP also lists objects to keep out of reach: coins, marbles, small balls, pen caps, toys with small parts, medicine syringes and button or lithium coin batteries. It warns that balloons are a risk up to age 8, suggests checking under furniture and between cushions for small items, and notes that many choking incidents involve older siblings handing something to a younger child.

For one Bronx family, the steps worked. A baby who was limp on a sidewalk in late September was back at the precinct a week later in his mother’s arms.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: MMZach – CC BY-SA 3.0/Wikimedia Commons