Reserve Citizen Airman saves child

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Dachelle Melville
  • 307th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. --  Senior Airman Timothy Brown, a B-52 Stratofortress crew-chief assigned to the 707th Maintenance Squadron, was playing fetch with his dog in their Houston backyard when out of the silence, screams radiated from the distance. It was July 4th but these were not shouts of celebration, but rather screams of desperation.

Brown did not know what happened, he just reacted. He jumped the corner fence and found his neighbor pulling his unconscious baby from their backyard pool.

“The father seemed… traumatized at the situation and was very upset,” said Brown.

The little boy had fallen into the pool, hitting his head.

“I jumped over the fence and started to perform CPR,” said Brown. “I didn't have time to think, the child was laying there with no pulse and not breathing, with blood coming out of his nose.”

Brown had never met the family before, only sharing a corner of fence. The mother said that to her, Brown came out of nowhere. She had been on the phone with her parents when the 18-month-old fell into the pool and she immediately called 911.

Brown remembered his first-aid training and performed CPR until the child was capable of breathing on his own. He could hear the water in the unconscious baby’s lungs as he struggled to breath.

It took about 15 minutes for the paramedics to arrive. As they prepared to leave with the little boy in the ambulance, Brown heard the child begin to cry. The boy had regained consciousness.

Brown said that he relied on his training and instinct to save the baby.

“If I would've stopped to think, it may have been too late,” said Brown. “I just reacted.”

In his eight years of service, Brown, learned the life-saving skills that saved the little boy. He spent six years with Active Duty before joining the Air Force Reserve in 2015.

The child quickly recovered due to Brown’s actions.

“Apparently he was up the next day and behaved as if nothing had happened,” said Brown.

Brown said that he was glad that he could help because the boy’s father seemed too upset to know what to do. Brown has a young daughter himself, and said that he could not imagine having to go through the same situation with her.

“I would hope that I could rely on my training and do the same thing again,” Brown said. “But when it is your own child, you just never know how you will react.”