Choking baby saved by Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Deputy

UPDATE 11/02/18 7:10 p.m. A Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Deputy helped save a baby’s life in the Davenport area.

On Monday October 15th, Deputy Bob Gidding was investigating a camping complaint in Davenport when he got a report of a 911 call for a baby not breathing down the road from him.

“Unfortunately based on the location, the radio reception out there is kind of slim. Doesn’t pick up everything. So all i got was somebody pulled off to the side of the road on the 1500 block of Highway one. Not breathing,” says Gidding.

While on his way to the call Deputy Gidding says he assumed it was an older person suffering a heart attack or stroke. It wasn’t until he arrived on the scene less than a minute later he realized it was an infant not breathing.

Deputy Gidding says he saw one woman holding the lifeless infant on the side of the road, that’s when his mindset quickly changed. “She handed me the baby over to me and i held the baby in my hands and I looked and her eyes started to fade, kind of got a haze over her eyes, she wasn’t breathing. Being a parent myself we’ve been through that tragic moment when you realize your child is choking.”

The family said they pulled over after noticing their baby was in distress.

Deputy Gidding quickly began a series of rescue back blows to the unconscious baby. He then did first aid applying additional back blows, “I lifted her up and a little bubble just kind of slowly emerged. I rolled her back over three more back blows, sat her up and she took a breath and her eyes opened.”

Deputy Gidding handed the baby back to the family and stayed with her to monitor the baby girl until medics got there.

The baby was taken to the hospital with her mother. The Sheriff’s Office said she will make a full recovery.

Deputy Gidding is a 29 year veteran of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office who has been a member of the Corrections Bureau, Crime Scene Investigations, Search and Rescue, Field Training Program, Crisis Negotiation Team, and Cabrillo College Security.

Gidding says, “I’d been training CPR and first aid for 35 years and it’s times like this where all that training pays off.”

He will tell you he’s just doing his job. But in the eyes of everyone else he’s a hero.