After a terrifying incident last week when a baby choked on a chip while visiting Rikers Island, the city's “Boldest” sprang into action to save the baby.
The one-year-old boy began turning blue after swallowing Doritos around 7:40 p.m. on Sunday in a visiting area of the prison where his mother, Savannah Webb, had just finished visiting with an inmate.
A corrections officer noticed little Demi-Webb struggling.
“I was standing behind my desk and I noticed the baby bent over and about to cry,” said Aisha Stanislaus, a 14-year veteran of the Department of Corrections. “The baby was blue in the face.”
She tried the Heimlich maneuver, but it didn't work.
That's when Corrections Officer Santos Barbosa Jr. heard the alert over his radio and jumped into action. He arrived at the visiting area to find people surrounding a child, including the child's panicked mother.
“She was hysterically screaming that her baby couldn't breathe,” Barbosa, 41, told The Washington Post.
Barbosa, a corrections officer for 18 years and who previously worked for a private ambulance company for three years, began administering CPR compressions to the baby's back.
But the life-saving technology didn't work.
So he put on gloves and tried to remove the chip with a “finger sweep,” but to no avail.
The pressure mounted as Demiri struggled.
“At this point, I asked my partner to open the front door so the baby and I could get some air,” Barbosa recalled. “Everyone was really emotional. Once the door was open, I got out and did some more chest compressions.”
The baby's abdomen was distended, he said.
“I knew if the baby didn't start breathing in the next few minutes, it was going to get a lot worse,” he said.
So he pushed his pinky further down the child's throat until he felt the tip move.
“The baby started wheezing so we knew air was going in and out,” he said.
Demiri then vomited, and Barbosa knew the child was safe.
He gave one last, careful compression and “the baby started crying,” he said.
Barbosa instructed the mother to bottle-feed the baby, who was then taken to hospital.
“I don't get nervous or emotional, but I did get a little teary-eyed,” Barbosa said, recounting the incident.
In addition to Stanislaus and Barbosa, corrections officer Anouk McQueen, who has been in the job for 17 years, stayed with Demiri until the ambulance arrived.
“This is the first time I've ever seen anything like this,” she said. “I'm just happy my baby is alive.”
Benny Bosio, president of the Corrections Officers Benevolent Association, said corrections officers deserved to be recognized.
“Corrections Officer Barbosa's quick thinking and life-saving action to save the life of a one-year-old who was choking and in a medical crisis exemplifies the best qualities of our essential workforce,” he said.
Corrections Commissioner Lynelle McGinley Liddy said the three officers are “shining examples of what heroism means to the Department of Corrections.”
A few days later, the baby was laughing and singing again, his grateful mother told The Post.
“He's always happy,” she said. “He sings. He's perfect.”
“I'm very grateful,” said the 24-year-old. “They were very good, very quick and took control of the situation.”
