Berkeley County Sheriff’s Deputy William Kimbro spied a vehicle whizzing past him while on patrol, so the officer took off to catch the speeder. But what Kimbro discovered when he pulled the vehicle over kicked his adrenaline into overdrive.
Kimbro approached the driver of the vehicle only to find an incredibly frantic woman who was racing to get medical help for a newborn. The 12-day-old baby wasn’t breathing!
Mom threw open the door and handed the baby to Kimbro for help. The baby had stopped breathing after drinking a bottle, Kimbro learned.
Babies often choke on their formula or milk, but Baby Ryleigh struggled then fell limp and lifeless.
His body camera captured the entire life-saving and hectic ordeal and people are applauding everything the officer did to rescue the baby. He grabbed ahold of the beautiful wee one named Ryleigh and began talking to her, coaxing her to breathe.
“Come on, baby. Cry for me. Cry for me. Come on, open those eyes, sweetheart. There you go. I’m worried about her, because she starts breathing and then she stops. And then starts and then stops.”
The sheriff’s deputy held her chin and rubbed her lip to stimulate her so she resumed breathing. You can hear the relief in his voice when Ryleigh is successfully revived.
Because of what he did, Kimbro received the Life-Saving Medal from Berkeley County Sheriff Duane Lewis.
He also was invited to Ryleigh’s first birthday celebration and was thrilled to be a part of her big day.
“Today, one year ago, is the day that I met Ryleigh when I saved her life. May 31st was Miss Ryleigh’s 1-year-old birthday. It was phenomenal. We went to the birthday. It was great.”
When the doorbell rang at Kimbro’s home a bit later, imagine his surprise when in walked Ryleigh and her mom. They had a surprise for him, one that almost brought this tough guy to tears.
“She hands my wife and I these envelopes with a penny on them. She said, ‘you’ll need the penny.’ She said, ‘you’ll need to read the card out loud.'”
The card said:
“Will you be my godfather?”
Kimbro could not believe what he was being asked to do! It was fate that brought him and Ryleigh together and sealed their relationship forever.
“My jaw just dropped. I just had this look on my face, looked at Ryleigh. I said, ‘absolutely, absolutely,’ and my wife got the same card.”
What began as a most terrifying moment for a family with a baby on the cusp of death ended up forging an amazing relationship between an officer and the baby whose life he saved the year before.
“Throughout the year, I reflected many times and in particular that day. [I] always asked myself, what was the reason I went down that street? There were five, six, seven other streets I could have gone down before going down that particular road. I could never answer that question. I just stopped trying. God works in mysterious ways.”
Ryleigh’s mom said she wanted Kimbro to know that they consider him to be a member of their family. If it wasn’t for him, Ryleigh wouldn’t even be alive to celebrate her first birthday.
So asking him to be her godfather was one way Ryleigh’s mom could show her gratitude and ensure that he would always be a part of Ryleigh’s life.
Watch the video below to see this South Carolina officer’s fun reaction to the important question Ryleigh’s mom had for him. What a wonderful relationship these two have cultivated!
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