WEST SENECA, N.Y. — In West Seneca, police officers are being credited for their quick action in responding to a call earlier this week, for a baby who was not breathing.
And now, the mother and father of that baby girl are saying thank you.
"It was definitely very scary and a memory I'll never forget," said Anthony Ferreira, the father of Addison Ferreira, his 2-month-old daughter.
That sense of fear quickly turned into relief, thanks to the response from West Seneca Police officers.
On Tuesday night, Ferreira called police. His daughter had stopped breathing.
"We had her laying down in her playpen, and my wife noticed her arms go up, kind of start shaking. As we lifted her up, she wasn't breathing at all," Anthony said.
The call to police brought back raw emotions from just two weeks ago, when police got another call for a baby who couldn't breathe.
That baby did not make it.
"Some of the officers that were on this previous call were also responding to this call, and that was obviously on their minds," Captain James Unger of the West Seneca Police Department said.
"You hear something like that and the entire shift drops everything that they’re doing and rushes right to the scene, so that’s what happened. I think we had nine police cars that responded there."
Ferreira says he performed chest compressions on Addison. Police were on scene on Forrestal Lane in less than two minutes.
All of a sudden, Addison started breathing again.
"The thing that I'm going to remember the most is her first cry when Officer (Kevin) Carr was holding her. That was the biggest relief that I felt during that whole situation," Anthony said.
Carr can be seen in a picture posted on the West Seneca Police Facebook page.
"He took the baby into his arms from the dad and ran the baby over to the ambulance with the paramedics, just to get the baby inside and get some oxygen flowing since the baby spontaneously began breathing. But was still in some distress, didn't have great color, so it was still a little bit tense at the time," Unger said.
After numerous tests at Oishei Children's Hospital, Addison's parents say doctors found a hole in her heart.
She's been put on medicine for reflux and will be seen by a cardiologist.
But what exactly caused her to stop breathing, they're still not sure. Ferreira believes Addison may be allergic to a specific type of milk formula that could’ve led to a reaction.
"We're just hoping and praying that it doesn't happen again. We are very, very happy to have the West Seneca Police officers helping us and supporting us," Anthony said.