Firefighters save life of infant

NANCY NEEDHAM/Acorn Newspapers A HEALTHY BABY NOW—Being surrounded by firefighters at a party held in his honor provides comfort to 2-month-old Ryland Garza. The baby stopped breathing when he was 2 days old, and his parents, grandmother and a team of firefighters worked together to save his life. Now he appears to be thoughtfully aware of his surroundings. He's also starting to smile. "Not breathing and no pulse does not have to mean death. Life is not always over when it looks like it's over," said nurse Katy Hadduck of the Ventura County Fire Department. When Tracy Garza's 2dayold son Ryland stopped breathing while she was breast-feeding him at home she knew she needed to stay calm.

"As I was breast-feeding Ryland I wondered if he was breathing. I looked at him and could see he was totally out of it and was turning a little blue," Tracy Garza said.

Her husband, Jack, was there by her side.

"It was pretty intense. It all happened really quick," Jack Garza said.

Tracy began CPR. She'd taken a class when she was 18 and working for the YMCA. Jack went downstairs and told his wife's mother, Jan Siebor, who was visiting from North Dakota, to call 911.

It was late afternoon on Sept. 22 when dispatcher Mallory Wright, 24, got the call. She'd worked at her job for six months and knew just what to do, she said. She alerted the fire station nearest to the Garza's Newbury Park home. Capt. Rich Sauer immediately drove engineer Cathy Schureman and firefighter/paramedic Jeff Golden from Fire Station 32 to the Garza home less than two miles away.

"The grandmother told me, 'Our baby's not breathing. What do we do?'" Wright said.

Wright gave Siebor CPR instructions over the phone.

"We get amazing training for our job, and we know just what to do," Wright said.

The Garzas followed the instructions as they tried to bring their child back to life.

"The grandmother stayed calm and exactly repeated my instructions to the mom," Wright said.

In less than five minutes, Golden and the others arrived.

"With an infant we just load and go. Time is of the essence," Golden said.

Tracy Garza continued to stay calm and prayed for her 4-pound son as Sauer drove the ambulance and the paramedics fought for his life.

"She was the calmest mother I ever met," Sauer said.

Sauer said the mother's prayers were answered as he rushed the baby to Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center.

"There is usually a lot of traffic at Lynn Road and the highway, but there was none. We hit all green lights," Sauer said.

Then, at around Gainsborough Road, he heard a weak cry, Sauer said.

"By the time we got to the hospital his color was back, his pulse was back and he cried," Golden said.

After many tests were run at the hospital, the diagnosis was a "near SIDS event," Tracy Garza said. SIDS stands for sudden infant death syndrome, the sudden and unexplained death of a baby under 1 year of age.

When Ryland was released from the hospital the next Sunday, Sept. 28, he was connected to a monitor that would sound an alarm if he stopped breathing again.

More than a month later, Ryland has gained two pounds and the alarm has not gone off even once, Tracy Garza said.

On Nov. 6, Ryland, his parents, the firefighters who saved him and the helpful dispatcher were reunited at Station 32 for an awards ceremony and breakfast.

"This is the greatest feeling in the world. This is what we train for," Golden said.

Tracy Garza called the firefighters heroes for coming so quickly and saving Ryland's life.

"You are the true heroes," Golden told the Garza family. "Your wit, strength and courage are the only reason this baby is alive."

"I'm telling all my pregnant friends to go and get a CPR class," Tracy Garza said.