An infant who had stopped breathing has survived after drivers stuck on a Miami motorway rushed to his rescue.
Pamela Rauseo, 37, left her vehicle on Miami’s Dolphin Expressway on Thursday crying for help as her nephew, Sebastian de la Cruz, turned blue.
One woman immediately helped Ms Rauseo perform CPR, while a Miami Herald news photographer found a police officer in a nearby vehicle.
Sebastian survived and was in hospital in stable condition late on Thursday.
Ms Rauseo told the Miami Herald she panicked when she saw that the infant, who had been born prematurely, had stopped breathing on Thursday afternoon.
Sweetwater officer Amauris Bastidas held Sebastian as Lucila Godoy (right) comforted Pamela Rauseo, the child’s aunt“My sister had trusted me with him,” she said.
She jumped from her car and screamed for help. Lucila Godoy ran over to help Ms Rauseo with CPR, leaving her own three-year-old child.
Al Diaz, a photographer with the Herald, was right behind Ms Rauseo.
“I heard screaming,” he said, “screaming that the baby can’t breathe.”
He left his vehicle to search for help among those stuck in the traffic jam.
Mr Diaz found Sweetwater Police officer Amauris Bastidas, who took over for Ms Godoy, performing chest compressions while Ms Rauseo breathed into the infant’s mouth.
Mr Bastidas told the local CBS broadcaster he had been a police officer for three years, but it was the first time he faced a life-or-death situation.
“It’s my duty. It’s my duty to act,” he said.
Mr Diaz said Ms Godoy helped save the child, but she told CBS: “I think I just did whatever any person would do”.
Two fire rescue workers in separate cars in the traffic gridlock heard the emergency call on their radios and also ran to help.
After several tense minutes in which Sebastian started breathing then stopped again, more fire rescue officials arrived, rushing the infant to hospital.
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