Newly hired TSA agent hailed as hero after saving choking baby

A newly hired Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer has been hailed as a hero after she saved a baby from choking by performing the infant Heimlich maneuver at Newark Liberty International Airport. 

According to a release from the TSA, officer Cecilia Morales helped a young mom who realized at the security checkpoint that her baby wasn’t breathing. 

After shouting instructions to the young mother, Morales realized “she was so nervous and I knew if I didn’t get over there, it wasn’t going to be a good outcome. I jumped over the checkpoint conveyor belt rollers and she gave me the baby. I performed the infant Heimlich maneuver on him.”

“The mother was too nervous and in shock to hold her son, so I carried the infant through the walk through metal detector and waited for the pediatric EMT to arrive to give the baby some oxygen a short time later,” she added. 

Morales was previously an EMT and has previously performed the Heimlich on adults and children, according to the release. 

“Two months on the job and she’s literally a life-saver,” Thomas Carter, TSA’s Federal Security Director for New Jersey added.

“Officer Morales’s quick reaction and actions helped ensure that this family will have a happy holiday season. Her actions were inspiring.”

The surveillance video from the incident which was obtained by Fox5 New York shows Morales taking action.

“It was the first time I’ve ever seen myself in action, saving a life. It was mind-blowing to watch. I felt that my training and experience just took over,” she added. 

According to New York’s health department, At least one child dies from choking on food every five days in the U.S., and more than 12,000 children are taken to a hospital emergency room each year for food-choking injuries. Choking is the fourth leading cause of unintentional death in children under the age of 5, per the health department.