Deputy Aguirre said he was having a rough week leading up to the incident. But then this put everything into perspective.
Deputy Valentino Aguirre of the Yuba County Sheriff’s Department in California recently responded to an urgent call about a 1-year-old infant unconscious and not breathing. Aguirre acted fast and stepped up to save the child’s life. And he recently chatted with Inside Edition Digital about how the incident transpired.
“I was nearby, closest first responder for a baby unconscious, not breathing, possibly drown in the shower or the bathtub,” California Deputy Valentino Aguirre explains about the incident. "I showed up and was presented a 1-year-old baby who was not breathing and was lifeless in my arms.
“All I was thinking was I got to do everything I can to get this kid breathing. Get this kid alert.”
Aguirre says he did back thrusts on the baby and placed him on his stomach at an angle on his knee to clear his airway. He then swiped the child’s mouth to make sure there was nothing stuck. He continued to do back pats, and after a while, the child became more alert and gained consciousness.
When he could tell the child was breathing, Aguirre gave him back to his father, and he himself could breathe a sigh of relief.
“The moment he started crying, it was like a huge weight was off my chest, off my shoulders,” the deputy explains.
“I've been to a lot of calls of service like that in the past. Specifically, last year I think I went to three or four of those myself, and we were just too late.”
Deputy Aguirre said that although his career is stressful, this incident helped him look at his choices and put things into perspective.
“I was having a tough week that week, and I was asking myself, asking God, ‘why am I doing this job? Why do you have me here?’ This is very stressful,” he states.
“And I go to that call, and the first thought after that was immediately that, okay. I won't ask. I won't question you again. That was a way of him saying, this is why you're doing this job.”
