Many parents are trained in CPR in the event that their child has a medical emergency. But have you ever heard of reverse CPR?
That’s how Lt. Kenneth Knox of Meriweather County, GA saved the life of infant Ma’Yavi Parham who he now calls his goddaughter.
Knox’s post about how he saved the child’s life went viral on Facebook and received more than 65,000 shares. He credits the event as the greatest things he’s done during his 25-year career as a police officer.
“I would like to take the time to introduce everyone to Miss Parham. She is a 2-month-old beautiful baby girl,” Knox wrote in his post. “Last night I was dispatched to a residence to a child choking, it was this beautiful little princess.”
Knox found the child to be in a terribly serious condition.
“She was turning blue and fading fast,” he wrote. “Mom and dad tried CPR with no luck and when I arrived she was not breathing. I did reverse CPR and was able to suck the cereal out of her throat and she began breathing again.”
According to Science Daily, reverse CPR is the practice of administering CRP while one is lying on their stomach instead of their back.
A 2003 study by John Hopkins Medical Institutions and Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center found that reserve CRP works better to restore blood flow and blood pressure than when patients are on their backs. It was, however, a small study and scientists didn’t recommend that this method be widely used.
It wasn’t specified if this was exactly what Knox did as he refers to “sucking the cereal” out of her breathing passage.
“I’ve been trained in CPR but I thought that would push the cereal further down so I just sucked it out,” Knox told CNN affiliate WDIV. “It took me a couple of tries.”
Thankfully, Knox’s method worked.
“She smiled at me for a second and then started crying which was music to my ears,” he recalled. “Out of my 25 years being a cop this is my greatest and most profound accomplishment and it made every second of those 25 years worth it all. I am forever humbled and changed by this. Little Miss Parham will forever be a part of my life.”
A week after he saved the baby’s life, her parents asked Knox if he would be the godfather.
“Ma’Yavi Parham is now my goddaughter which blesses me as a person and a man,” Knox wrote on Facebook. “I am the one who was blessed with her being brought into my life. She is a beautiful child and to know I will see her grow into a beautiful woman who can be what ever she wants.”
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