Healthcare providers are putting out a warning that a surge in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases are going on as the holiday season approaches.
They have indicated that premature infants and newborn babies are at the highest risk, and to make plans to stay at home or keep loved ones at home who have been diagnosed with RSV, according to Johns Hopkins.
One couple in Kansas City, Missouri, had a pretty terrifying experience when their preemie daughter was apparently battling RSV.
In what some might call the beginning of a miracle, officers Richard DuChaine and Charles Owen just happened to be patrolling the area near the home of little Kamiyah Allen on Nov. 3.
Allen was born 34 weeks premature and had suddenly stopped breathing.
When the officers received notification about the baby in distress, they speed to Allen’s home, and a police bodycam showed them jumping out of the vehicle, racing across the street, and sprinting up to the door of her home.
WARNING: Some viewers may find the video disturbing.
The two officers arrived at the home even before the paramedics, according to CBN News.
The officers burst through the unlocked door, and Kamiyah Allen’s father instantly handed her over to officer DuChaine, according to WDAF-TV news.
“The baby was so small, she looked like a doll,” officer Owen told Today.
The bodycam showed DuChaine jumping into action with heart compressions, and shortly after that, indicating that he thought he felt a heartbeat.
Then he turned her over and started doing back thrusts.
He can be heard coaching her as he continued the back thrusts, “Come on sweetie! Come on!”
Once they got her breathing, they turned her on her side to double-check and make sure there wasn’t an obstruction that would get aspirated back into her lungs.
“After several back thrusts I could start seeing a little bit of life coming to the baby,” officer DuChaine told WDAF-TV.
“I knew that he was going to make sure that she was going to be okay,”
said Kamiyah Allen’s mom, Tajanea Allen.
“That’s my hero. He saved my daughter,” Kamiyah Allen’s father said of officer DuChaine. “I will do anything for that man, he saved my daughter, and I thank him for that.”
DuChaine said he has a daughter of his own who was a preemie, and so this situation hit rather close to home for him.
“I’ve been in your shoes, I know exactly what it feels like,” said DuChaine. “And that’s the biggest thing, is just being so close and I could actually relate to this family that I serve.”
This story has a happy ending in that baby Kamiyah Allen is doing fine, though she was taken to an area hospital where she stayed for about a week for observation as she recovered, according to Today.
She was officially diagnosed with RSV at the hospital.
Symptoms to watch for in connection to RSV per Johns Hopkins are runny nose, sore throat and cough.
