It’s well-known that seconds count in an emergency, so a lot of responsibility falls on the shoulders of the first person on the scene.
Depending on where you live, you may notice that it’s not unusual for firefighters to arrive after a 911 call that has nothing to do with a fire. And while it’s true that the vehicle they arrive in may not have been designed to fit the situation, the people riding it are just as trained and prepared to handle an emergency as their fellow first responders.
But on one summer day in South Carolina, that responsibility fell to one deputy and he’s now receiving a very personal honor for the way he handled a desperate situation.
On June 11, 2019, Deputy William Kimbro of the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Department pulled over a vehicle for speeding.
As ABC11 reported , however, he soon learned that there was a good reason for the driver to move so fast: The woman in the vehicle was holding a 12-day-old baby who was not breathing.
As he performed CPR, the baby, named Ryleigh, started showing signs of recovery.
In Kimbro’s body camera footage of the incident, he can be heard encouraging this, saying, “Come on baby, cry for me. Come on, open those eyes, sweetheart.”
When Ryleigh does cry a little, Kimbro explains to her mother that as long as she’s crying like that, she’s breathing.
Even as this happened, however, Kimbro still saw some cause for concern.
In the video, he can be heard saying, “I’m worried about her, because she starts breathing and then she stops. And then starts and then stops.”
Nonetheless, Ryleigh would go on to make a full recovery.
Deputy Kimbro’s actions earned him the South Carolina Sheriff’s Association Medal of Valor.
This is not to be confused with the South Carolina Medal of Valor, which is typically awarded to South Carolina residents who give their lives while serving in the military.
As ABC Columbia reported , this particular award is instead given to law enforcement officers who “perform actions above and beyond the call of duty.”
But if that honor meant a lot to him, the fact that his actions won him a new friend meant even more.
When Ryleigh was three months old, she and her mother attended a small ceremony hosted by the Berkeley County Council honoring Kimbro for his lifesaving deed.
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And it’s clear that Ryleigh has been on Kimbro’s mind since then, too.
As ABC4 reported , for Ryleigh’s first birthday on May 31, he brought her gifts.
Twelve days later, however, the girl’s mother arrived at Kimbro’s house with a gift of her own.
Specifically, she handed Kimbro and his wife two envelopes with a penny attached to each of them.
As Kimbro told ABC 4, “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 pennies were intended to reveal a hidden message behind a scratcher, which turned out to say, “Will you be my godfather?”
As Kimbro said, “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.”
And as we can see here, the couple can now proudly consider themselves Ryleigh’s godparents.
