{"id":17420,"date":"2024-04-16T07:47:12","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T11:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=17420"},"modified":"2024-04-16T07:47:12","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T11:47:12","slug":"connecticut-police-officer-creates-bond-with-baby-girl-he-saved-five-years-ago-were-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2024\/04\/connecticut-police-officer-creates-bond-with-baby-girl-he-saved-five-years-ago-were-family.html","title":{"rendered":"Connecticut Police Officer Creates Bond With Baby Girl He Saved Five Years Ago: ‘We’re Family’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The strong bond between a Connecticut police officer and a baby girl whose life he saved five years ago continues to highlight the power of human connection over all else, including people\u2019s backgrounds and races, he said. Det. Michael Harton of the North Haven, Connecticut Police Department told Fox News Digitial, \u201cEverybody\u2019s lives changed for the better that night, especially mine. We\u2019re all human. We get so involved in the drama of the world. It\u2019s nice to be able to take care of each other, no matter where we come from or what our situation may be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harton, a police officer for 27 years, was on duty at a movie theater on March 4, 2019, when suddenly a woman came running out of a movie with a baby in her arms. \u201cShe was frantic,\u201d Harton said. \u201cYou could tell as soon as I grabbed her that she was in distress.\u201d That woman was Nikki Huckaby, and the baby was her three-month-old daughter Eimaan, who goes by the nickname Tooka.<\/p>\n

The family was on their first outing since baby Tooka\u00a0was born prematurely\u00a0in December. Huckaby said, \u201cShe had never been left alone without me. So we brought her to the movie. And so I had just fed her, burped her and she was doing fine. But when I went to put her in her chair and was strapping her in, I noticed that she was not breathing.\u201d\u00a0Huckaby said she picked her baby up and patted her on the back, but nothing was working.\u00a0\u201cAlthough I knew CPR,\u201d she said, \u201cin that moment, everything in my mind went blank. I remember thinking, \u2018I have to get outside this theater. I know there\u2019s an officer out there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Huckaby found Harton in the lobby area and told him, \u201cMy\u00a0baby is not breathing.\u201d\u00a0She said, \u201cThe only thing I could do was call on the name of Lord God, Jesus. There was nothing else that I knew to do in that moment.\u201d But Harton, also a trained EMT, jumped into action, performing a variation of\u00a0the Heimlich maneuver\u00a0for infants. Harton said, \u201cI started with back blows, and that\u2019s when she curled her back up and completely went limp on me. Then I started doing back blows, chest compressions, back blows, chest compressions.\u201d<\/p>\n