Trooper awarded for saving infant

When Nebraska State Patrol Trooper Christopher Richardson arrived at the Otoe residence shortly after 4 p.m. on Dec. 2, the baby boy was in distress.

Three-month-old Damian Zapata, who had been born prematurely, had stopped breathing, his mother, Teresa, said.

Although his father, Francisco, had gotten Damian breathing again, “Chris got there and took him to the rescue squad and cleared his airway,” Teresa Zapata said.

“If he wouldn't have got there when he did, (the baby) probably wouldn't be here today.”

The Nebraska State Patrol announced Friday that Richardson will receive the Nebraska State Patrol Life Saver Award for his efforts in saving the life of the premature infant, an award that recognizes employees who initiate efforts to preserve or protect life above or beyond their professional duty and whose actions directly reduced the risk of or prevented loss of life.

When the father handed him the baby, Damian was blue, Richardson said.

Richardson had to restart the boy's breathing about four times over a 10 to 15 minute time frame before the ambulance arrived, he said.

“I started CPR on him again, got him breathing, he was struggling very hard to breathe,” he said.

Thanks to Richardson's quick actions — using his first aid training to open the baby's blocked airway — the child is alive and was receiving treatment Friday at BryanLGH-East in Lincoln in the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit.

Trooper Richardson stayed with the infant as he was transported, maintaining the airway on the way to a hospital in Syracuse. He personally handed the child over to emergency room doctors.

“The ambulance pulled up and I just jumped in, and before I could lay him down, the driver had already taken off,” he said. “I was maintaining the baby's airway the whole time.”

Richardson is a CPR instructor and EMT in Nebraska City. This event shows the need for CPR training, which the Zapatas had, Richardson said.

“The parents were able to do the right thing,” he said.

Richardson is a 10-year veteran of the Nebraska State Patrol.

Contact the writer:

444-1074, john.keenan@owh.com