Two Hub cops to be honored today
Helped save infant’s life
Two Boston police officers who saved the life of an infant two years ago will be honored today at the 149th Boston Police Relief Association Ball in Randolph.
It all began on a September day in 2019 when Arelys Furtado of the South End was trying to give her then 6-week-old son, Jaxen, some vitamin D through a dropper. She was doing exactly what she’d been advised to do, but he didn’t like the taste of it, she said, and he began choking.
She tried to stay calm and started to give the baby the Infant Heimlich Maneuver, turning him over and giving him pats on the back with her index and middle fingers. But when that didn’t work, she called her husband, who works in the South End, and he picked her up and they headed to Boston Medical Center.
But Jaxen still couldn’t spit up the vitamin D. So when they were stopped at a red light on the way behind a Boston police patrol car, Jair Furtado jumped out, ran over and pounded on the cruiser’s window.
“I need help!” he yelled. When he told them his baby was choking, officers James O’Connor and Arthur Green got out and ran over to his car, where O’Connor reached in and took the baby from Arelys Futado.
The infant appeared to be reddish blue, Green said. And O’Connor also began to give him the Infant Heimlich Maneuver while Green called for an ambulance.
Within a few moments, the baby spit up the vitamin D, and then the baby began to cry.
“It was a great feeling to hear the baby crying because then you know the child’s breathing,” O’Connor said.
The two officers massaged the infant’s back as his color returned to normal and, minutes later, handed him over to the emergency medical technicians who had arrived by then.
Off the family went to Boston Medical Center.
“It was a good ending to a scary situation,” said Green, who had had a baby boy himself that May. “As a parent, it hits you harder; it’s more personal because you have a kid. You would hope somebody would do that for your kid if he needed help. When someone hands you a baby, you do what you think’s right.”
When the two officers receive their awards at today’s ball, Arelys and Jair Furtado and their now 2-year-old son, Jaxen, will be cheering them on and thanking them for saving Jaxen’s life.
“I’m very grateful they were in the right place at the right time,” Arelys Furtado said. “Not a second was wasted.”