A former nurse is highlighting why emergency health training matters after she and a police officer helped a mother whose baby suddenly seemed to stop breathing during a trip to the post office.
Fox 10 Phoenix reported that on July 11, Kylie Vega took her 8-month-old daughter, Nova, to a post office in Clifton, Greenlee County, Arizona, to send a package.
Working at the counter that day was Mary Shwarz, a postal clerk who previously worked as a registered nurse and has spent 13 years with the postal service. Shwarz had previously taught CPR classes during her nursing career.
During the interaction, Shwarz noticed that Vega’s baby had gone ‘limp’ and immediately moved in to assist. Vega had asked to pause her transaction to tend to her infant daughter, which struck Shwarz as unusual given how quiet the baby was.
Nova, who was born with a congenital heart defect including a hole in her heart and a missing pulmonary artery, had reportedly stopped breathing. After failing to detect a pulse, Shwarz began CPR.
As Vega called 911 to get medical help on the way, Shwarz said she used back thrusts in ‘an effort to clear the baby’s airway’, according to the local outlet. That response came after the mother said her daughter may have tried to vomit and could have been choking.
Clifton Police Lt. Shari Aguilar responded within 30 seconds of the 911 dispatch call at approximately 11:12 a.m. and immediately joined the effort to help Nova. Aguilar knew of Shwarz’s nursing background before the incident.
Believing that every second counted, Aguilar decided they could not afford to wait for paramedics to arrive. Instead, she asked Vega: “Can you give us permission to have [Shwarz] hold the baby and I am just going to take her up,” with the pair heading to a nearby medical clinic. As Aguilar drove, Shwarz held Nova in the front passenger seat and continued providing emergency care.
Shwarz later said Nova started breathing again about halfway through the drive to the clinic. En route, emergency medical personnel were advised they would meet the pair directly in the ambulance bay.
Once they reached the clinic, medical staff took over her care, and the baby was later airlifted to Banner University Medical Center in Tucson for advanced treatment.
Vega has since said she is ‘grateful’ that ‘kind people’ like Aguilar and Shwarz were there to help save her daughter. She noted that she and Shwarz have since become Facebook friends and that she continues to keep the former nurse updated on Nova’s recovery.
On July 21, Nova underwent heart surgery at Banner University Medical Center to repair the hole in her heart. The child has since been recovering well from the procedure.
In the aftermath, Shwarz has used the incident to urge more people to learn CPR and other emergency response skills. As a former CPR instructor, she credited muscle memory and pure instinct for carrying her through the emergency situation.
Data from the National Institutes of Health suggests that only about one in five adults in the US is CPR-trained and has current certification.
“If you’re a homeowner and have a pool or there’s a choking incident with a child or a family member. It’s so important to have some kind of training to know what to do in that situation,” she stated.