By Police1 Staff
MESQUITE, Nev. — An officer used the reverse Heimlich maneuver to save a three-year-old after responding to a call that the boy was choking nearby on a piece of candy.
Officer Quinn Averett was less than a block away when he heard the call of panicked parents entering a store with their son, Damien Valencia, who couldn’t breathe.
Averett took Damien from his father and took him over his knee to use the reverse Heimlich maneuver, at which point the officer’s body camera turned on, according to ABC 6.
After dislodging the candy, the boy can be heard crying for his mother.
Days later, the family arrived at the police station to thank the officer who saved their boy.
“When I saw him I just started crying,” the boy’s mother, Mariana Cardiel told the news station.
Averett will be honored next month by the police department and the local city council with a life-saving award - and Damien’s family plans to be there.