Firefighters Save Choking Baby

Saturday morning, the heavy rescue fire truck out of Framingham Fire Station #5 on Concord Street was out on a medical call. They had just finished when they were notified of a second medical call of a person choking minutes away.

"When we arrived, the mother and other family members were outside," said Framingham Lt. Alberto Nau. "We didn't know, it was a baby choking until we got there."

"The baby was choking, gurgling blood," said Lt. Nau, retelling what happened on Dec. 1.

Nau took the baby and did "several back blows" on the boy, whom firefighters said was a little more than a year old.

"I was able to move the toy in his throat enough that he began to cry," said Lt. Nau.

"When he started crying it was the best sound. We knew he was breathing," said Nau, a 30-year veteran on the Framingham Fire Department.

Nau and Framingham firefighters Luke Moro and Marcelino Rodriquez treated the baby, giving him oxygen, until an ambulance arrived.

The toy was still lodged in the baby's throat, but as he was breathing, the firefighters waited for the ambulance to transport the baby and mother to MetroWest Medical Center, where the toy could be remove.

The mother was hysterical when we arrived.

We were able to get from her that the baby had swallowed a triangle-shaped sorting toy, said Lt. Nau.

"Luckily, we were coming back from another medical call about 100 yards away. We were there in minutes," said Lt. Nau.

The 9-1-1 call came in from 149 Grant St, according to the fire report, at 11:16:56 a.m. The Framingham fire crew of three arrived at 11:18:33 a.m.

The Framingham Fire Department report doesn't mention the name of the family or the age of the baby.

Framingham Patch stopped by the home on Wednesday, but a person who answered the door said the mother was not home and didn't speak English to answer any other questions.

Lt. Nau said the other firefighters with him were getting the necessary equipment from the truck, so he was the first to see the baby and began performing the life-saving steps to get the baby breathing.

Nau said this was not the first time he had saved a life.