SF Police Officers Hailed As Heroes For Saving Newborn
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – A newborn baby boy, who was left to die in San Francisco last week, is recuperating at San Francisco General Hospital, while the two police officers who helped save him are being called heroes.
Officers Matt Cloud and Steve Gritsch said they were both quite shaken from the ordeal, overcome with emotion when a man handed them a bloody newborn early on the morning of December 12 in the Bayview District.
The child's mother had handed the newborn to the man after apparently trying to leave the baby at a shelter at 3rd and McKinnon streets. She then took off but was later tracked down by officers.
KCBS' Doug Sovern Reports:
Cloud said the baby wasn't breathing at all.
"Having two young children, I know what a baby should look like when it's first born," he said. "And this baby showed no signs. There was no movement, no screaming, no crying."
But thanks to some quick thinking, Gritsch performed CPR on the baby boy as his partner sped to the hospital.
Gritsch said he's seen a lot, as an EMT, then as a firefighter and for the last five years, as a police officer in one of San Francisco's toughest neighborhoods.
"You can put up with it. But when it's a kid like that, he didn't choose that so it's harder. It was a lot harder," Gritsch said.
The baby's mother, Nneka Nash, is being charged with child cruelty for abandoning him.
The baby is recovering and the heroic officers are collecting gifts to fill a Christmas stocking for him.
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