A Massachusetts State Police trooper is being credited for saving the life of an infant Wednesday evening after the infant stopped breathing.
Police said the mother of the 8-day-old boy had been traveling along Soldiers Field Road in Boston at 5:40 p.m. with the grandmother in the backseat feeding the baby. When the baby became distressed, the mother pulled into a parking lot and called for help.
Authorities at the Brighton police barracks were given their location, but when Trooper John Arone, who was patrolling nearby, arrived at an IHOP parking lot, he determined that the white SUV he was looking for wasn't there. He ended up finding the SUV at the nearby McDonald's and quickly assessed the situation.
Arone, a father of a 4-month-old himself, said the infant was not breathing and checked his airway. He said he did not see anything blocking the infant's airway so he loosened the baby's swaddling and gave the infant a pat on the back causing the baby to release an air bubble and a large amount of saliva and formula.
The infant began to breathe again and started crying. He was then taken into the McDonald's to keep warm until first responders arrived to check his vital signs.
Arone said both his police training and skills as a dad enabled him to act so quickly.
"We have the finest instructors at the academy. We go through amazing training here. But I'm also a father as well. I have a boy that's 4 months old," said Arone. "It came natural. It just resorted to instinct."
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The infant was then taken to Boston's Children's Hospital for further evaluation.
