Halton officer helps save choking baby’s life

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A Halton police officer says the call to save a choking infant was both the worst and best call in his 26 years on the force. Baby Evan is alive today thanks to efforts by Constable Rick Buys, first on scene, and also the other responders. Evan’s mother says everyone knew what they were doing and kept their composure.

Rick buys feels a special connection to the baby he helped save. “It was scariest call of my life, but the best call of my career, the way it turned out.”

This happened a few weeks ago, on April 19th. Kelly Bragg had baby Evan and her two year old out to get groceries, when Kelly realized Evan wasn’t breathing. The 3 had been Superstore for about an hour, Evan had been asleep in his car seat.

Kelly describes what happened. “We got hit by a gust of wind and Evan cried out and I just assumed he was waking up, at the same time I was struggling with the cart, in the wind.” When she got to the car she realized Evan’s eyes were wide open and he was trying, but unable to cry. She called 911. “Nothing I was doing was helping him. From the time I called to the response time he had gone limp, he turned blue, his tongue was out. I thought…I thought that was it.”

Constable Buys was metres from Superstore at the time, and thanks to a smart dispatcher, knew exactly where to look in the busy parking lot. “I couldn’t have been in a better spot” he says “I jumped out of the cruiser, saw Kelly, and she gave me Evan. He was weightless. limp, turning blue.” Despite his inner panic, Constable Buys remembered infant CPR. He got Evan onto the hard back seat of his cruiser and worked on his tiny chest until paramedics arrived. “Within a minute, minute and a half, he gave a little cough and squirmed and started to cry…the three of us just looked at each other and the paramedic asked my name and said, awesome job Rick, awesome job. It was pretty cool.”

“There’s not a question in my mind that we wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for everyone” says a grateful Kelly Bragg.

Constable Buys knows he will not forget this particular call “This will be that call you remember years after you retire. And I’m sure we’ll see each other every April 19th.”

Evan spent three days at sick kids but doctors found nothing wrong with him. Doctors suspect this was what they call a “rare event”.