By A.S. Kinsman

When a baby stops breathing, your heart stops beating, too. Except your heart will restart its steady rhythm in a matter of seconds, but the baby won’t start breathing. This is the nightmarish situation that unfolded on a Florida highway on February 20^th, 2014.

37-year-old Pamela Rauseo was stuck in a traffic jam in the afternoon on Miami Highway 836 when she looked into the backseat to check on her 5-month-old nephew, Sebastian de la Cruz. She noticed that the silent baby wasn’t breathing. And he was turning a deathly shade of blue from lack of oxygen.

Sebastian had been born prematurely and as a result, suffered from respiratory problems. But something like this had never happened before. And Pamela knew if she didn’t act very quickly, her tiny nephew would soon be gone.

She immediately pulled the car over on the westbound lane and jumped out, screaming for help. A woman in a car nearby in the jam, Lucila Godoy, heard Rauseo’s cries and left her own toddler in the back seat of her car, rushing to the 37-year-old aunt’s aid.

It wasn’t just Godoy who was astonishingly close to the emergency. Remarkably, emergency officials who also just happened to be stuck in the traffic jam rushed to the scene to help the dying baby.

Sweetwater Police Officer Amauris Bastidas assisted Rauseo as best he could. While she breathed life into the baby, he pumped his chest, performing infant CPR.

“I lifted him up in the air and moved him up and down,” Bastias said.

There was a temporary moment of relief when the baby started breathing again. But it was short lived; the baby stopped breathing again.

They immediately resumed CPR. A Fire-Rescue volunteer and a police officer were also nearby and overhead the frantic scene on their radio. By the time they arrived to help, the baby was breathing on his own consistently, but weakly. He needed intensive medical care immediately.

Paramedics soon pushed their way through the traffic and arrived on-scene, where they took baby Sebastian to the local hospital, Jackson Memorial Hospital. The baby remains in stable condition.

The story touched many hearts around the country. Most of all, it seemed mothers were the ones who felt the most emotional impact.

Online commenter momrules said, “God bless the child and thank God there were caring people there to help save this baby’s life.”

“Amen. I would be a basket case if that was my little boy.” Biohazard23 agreed.

“God bless the baby’s aunt, who had the presence of mind to act, despite her emotions.” Woodyee replied.

Many people are in grateful disbelief that so many people were around to help. The chances of having so many medically-trained personnel around were extremely slim, but thankfully, angels were watching over Pamela Rauseo and her nephew Sebastian that day. And it wasn’t just angels who had a duty to protect and save an innocent life.

“It’s my duty.” Officer Bastidas said. “It’s my duty to act.”  Doctors expect Sebastian to make a full recovery.