February 20, 2001

PRESS RELEASE

To: Newsroom

For Immediate Release

Contact: Brian A. Crawford, Public Information Officer

Phone: 673-6652, cell: 455-2609, page: 675-2137

Firefighters Save Infant

Shreveport firefighters rushed into the residence at 918 View Street this morning at 7:04 a.m. to find little 2-month-old Wilciad Gafford unresponsive and not breathing. According to the parents, Wilcaid had been born premature and required frequent suctioning of his airway passages because of mucus buildup. The mother told fire officials that she had blown into the infants nose trying to remove mucus from the child’s airway just before his becoming unresponsive. The baby’s father, Willie Gafford, noticing the baby barely breathing, called 911 and started CPR on the infant.

When the first emergency units arrived on the scene from the fire department’s downtown Central Fire Station, the baby was unresponsive and had no pulse, says firefighter Paul Hill.

As paramedics Marty Thompson and Jason Johnson cleared the infants airway, continued CPR, and took other advanced life support measures, the infant began to respond and breath on its own, subsequently returning a strong pulse rate. The infant was transported to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Louisiana State University Health and Science Center, where it is said to be stable condition.

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