NOVEC Line Technicians Help Save an Infant's Life

 

 

While traveling in their service truck in Manassas on July 12, NOVEC line technicians Troy Price (above, left) and Mauricio (Mo) Paz spotted a distressed woman kneeling by her car in the road’s median. She was holding a baby. Bystanders were hovering nearby. 

“The woman looked hysterical,” explains Paz. “So we pulled over to see if we could help.” 
The line techs say the mother was wailing and crying out to her baby, “Please don’t die!” 

 

“The baby was stiff and blue,” Price says. “We asked if someone had called 911. Bystanders said they had, but they didn’t know what else to do. Mo asked one of them to ask people sitting in traffic nearby if anyone was a doctor.” 

 

Remembering what they learned from NOVEC’s first-aid and cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training, Paz called 911 again and described the infant’s condition. 

 

“The dispatcher asked if we knew how to do CPR,” Paz states. “I told her we were certified in CPR for adults, but not for a tiny baby. She asked if we were willing to administer it while she talked us through it. I said we were ready to do whatever it took to save the baby’s life.” 

 

The dispatcher then asked if one of them would go quickly to a nearby business and find an automated external defibrillator (AED). Paz told her they had one in their truck. Price ran to get it. In the meantime, Paz asked a bystander to bring him a bottle of water so he could try to keep the baby cool in the hot weather. 

 

Just before starting CPR and using the AED, first responders arrived. Medics grabbed the baby and rushed him into their truck. Price comforted the panic-stricken mother. 

 

“The medics revived the baby,” both men say, stirred with emotion. “It’s a miracle the baby is alive.” 

 

NOVEC requires all employees to learn how to give basic first aid and CPR, and how to use an AED device. 

 

“I’m so grateful and proud that Mo and Troy acted quickly and used their first-aid skills with confidence,” says Lori Spence, system safety and compliance specialist and one of NOVEC’s first-aid and CPR instructors. “My hope is their story will encourage others to not to be afraid to help save a life.”