Lifeguard saves life of infant on beach (1980)
BY Ned Barnett Press Staff Writer
Published: Friday, November 10, 2006
ATLANTIC CITY – Two lifeguards at the States Avenue beach Thursday saved the life of an infant girl with emergency resuscitation techniques, according to the mother and witnesses.
Monica Marie Gardner, 6 months old, who was lying in the 85-degree sun near the Boardwalk with her mother, Mary Gardner of Atlanta, Ga., simply closed her eyes and stopped breathing at about 4 p.m.
The girl’s pulse faded beyond detection, the mother said.
Lifeguard Bob Levy, 34, responding to the mother’s shouts for help, jumped off his stand and sprinted to the knot of people gathered.
Levy tapped Monica Marie’s chest, hoping to get her heart beating again. Nothing happened. The baby remained rigid.
Levy, of Brigantine, continued applying mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while witnesses ran to the aid station for the second lifeguard.
Rick Pollak, 19, a medic at the States Avenue headquarters, said, “I was taking out a splinter when somebody came running up. They were screaming for a doctor. They said the baby was dead.”
“I ran out to see what was happening and Bob was already there giving mouth-to –mouth.
“I was scared. It was the first time I ever saw anybody die before. Bob put his fingers down her throat to see if anything was blocking it. Then I saw her hands start to move. Then the pulse came back. She didn’t cry when she came back. I don’t know what it was. Maybe heat stroke. Maybe crib death.”
Contacted at his home late Thursday night Levy said of the rescue, “ When I got to her she was gone. There was nothing. No pulse, nothing, I just reacted the way we were trained. You don’t think much in those situations.
Asked how he felt about saving the baby. Levy said, “I felt great knowing I was part of keeping another life alive. I was a Green Beret in Vietnam and I guess I’ve taken a few lives. It feels good to be on the other side this time.”
Rushed by ambulance to the Atlantic City Medical Center, Monica Marie was fully revived by doctors in the emergency room. The doctors said the baby may have lost consciousness from the change in temperature when she was taken out of the water. Or she may have developed cramps after being breast fed.
An hour after arriving at the hospital the baby was released and her mother came back to the beach to thank the lifeguards. With a tear rolling down her face and her baby asleep in her arms, Mrs. Gardner said, “I really don’t know what happened. She just stopped breathing and went stiff. When she got to the hospital she was Monica Marie again. The guards were excellent. They got there so fast I didn’t know where they came from.
“It was the kind of excitement I don’t want to ever go through again. You really think that death is at your door.”
Arthur Ford, a 33-year-old Atlantic City native who witnessed the emergency, praised the lifeguards for their performance. “He came up here like a bat out of hell and went to work right away,” Ford said of Levy. “I didn’t know what to do. I started praying. Then somebody yelled, ‘I got a pulse.’ It felt good to hear that.
“I’m on the beach every year, and every year these guards do a good job. This time I think they saved that little girl’s life.”
Source: http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/ats/story/6922843p-6786235c.html (Press of Atlantic City)
