By Lori Steineck
The Repository, Canton, Ohio
CANTON, Ohio — Charnele Carpenter, sent home from the hospital with a heart monitor for her premature baby, said she woke up shortly before 3:30 a.m. Monday and went to prepare his bottle.
She expected him to be awake soon, as was their routine, and she knew he’d be hungry.
But the heart monitor, which sounds any time her baby stops breathing for more than 20 seconds, sounded twice while she was getting the bottle.
Then the alarm stopped. The machine continued working normally, she said.
Perhaps he’d been breathing slowly or the monitor had issues.
Carpenter took the bottle to her infant son at their home in the 600 block of Alan Page Drive SE, talking to him as she prepared to feed him.
Then the monitor went off twice more.
Her 8-week-old had stopped breathing.
Carpenter dialed 911, hysterical.
A 911 recording details a dispatcher calming and then coaching Charnele Carpenter through starting CPR.
Lt. John Bosley of the Canton Police Department’s Patrol Division said police dispatch notes show that officers were in the area when paramedics were called.
The body camera worn by Officer Timothy Thorn shows that the child had no pulse when he arrived. A patrol officer since May 2012 and U.S. Army reserve officer, Thorn took over, continuing CPR on the child.
Medics later arrived and took over from Thorn.
“I believe the paramedics had to keep the child alive on the way to the hospital,” Police Sgt. Robert Smith told The Canton Repository on Monday night.
The child was taken to Aultman Hospital and, at 4:22 a.m., he was reportedly in stable condition, Bosley said.
Christal Carpenter said her grandson “flat-lined” four more times after that.
The baby had been born May 7. He was “two months and nine days premature,” Christal Carpenter said, adding that the infant was sent home with a heart monitor.
Charnele Carpenter said just before noon Tuesday that her child was doing better.
She said that the infant has been diagnosed with the flu.
He remained in the hospital on Tuesday, continuing to recover.
©2018 The Repository, Canton, Ohio