Deputy Sheriff Patrick Ficke of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office had no idea he was about to save a life when he stopped an erratic driver on I-25.
As soon as the SUV stopped moving, the driver jumped out of the vehicle and desperately pleaded for help. Deputy Ficke saw the 1-year-old child in the back seat was starting to turn purple. The little girl was choking and Deputy Ficke didn’t have a moment to lose.
Without hesitation, the heroic deputy called for an ambulance as he checked the infant’s airway. He found it was blocked and began a modified form of the Heimlich maneuver for babies and very small children.
“After about 45 seconds to a minute of giving the Heimlich, the Cheeto she was choking on came out and she started crying where I turned her back up and just tried to comfort her,” he said in an interview.
The miraculous moment was captured by Deputy Ficke’s dash cam footage, which you can see in the video below.