‘Breathe, mijo.’ Officer saves unresponsive baby born in car in New Mexico, cops say

A ”hero” police officer saved a newborn baby in an emergency room parking lot after getting a “frantic” 911 call, New Mexico officials said.

At 10:45 p.m. on July 24, a New Mexico State Police officer was patrolling in Deming, police said in a Facebook post.

He was dispatched after getting a call about a mother who’d given birth on her way to the hospital, officials said.

In body camera footage, the officer can be seen walking over to the car saying “Where’s the baby? What’s going on?”

The baby, still attached to the mother’s umbilical cord, wasn’t breathing, police said.

The video shows the officer spring into action, repeatedly tapping the back of the unresponsive newborn.

The officer can be heard saying, “Come on mijo breathe, breathe, breathe mijo breathe.”

Eventually the baby lets out a cry and the mother and newborn are taken into the hospital by nurses, officials said.

“I have three kids of my own, so I’ve seen the doctors do that with my daughters because they came out of the womb the same way and no crying or anything,” the officer, named Ismael Perez, told Good Morning America. “So I did the same thing.”

Officials confirmed the newborn is in “excellent health” and he and his mother were released from the hospital days later.

“To me, in my eyes, he’s a hero. He helped me in what I would say was one of the scariest moments in my life,” Miguel Covarrubias, the newborn’s father, told KOAT. “It lined up perfectly to where everything turned out OK. So, it was and is by the grace of God.”

Deming is about 230 miles southwest of Albuquerque.

This story was originally published August 9, 2023 at 10:51 AM with the headline "‘Breathe, mijo.’ Officer saves unresponsive baby born in car in New Mexico, cops say."