TSA Officer Cecilia Morales. (TSA photo)
NEWARK, N.J.—When Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer Cecilia Morales heard people screaming for help, she knew if she didn’t act quickly, the outcome was going to be grim.
A young mother picked up her two-month old son from his car carrier seat to carry him through the security checkpoint at a Newark Liberty International Airport, but when the mom lifted him up, she saw that the boy wasn’t breathing. She immediately sought help from her co-travelers and shouted for help when she realized her attempts at rousing her son were unsuccessful.
Morales, a trained emergency medical technician (EMT) with 10 years of experience serving in several Northern New Jersey towns, shouted instructions over to the mother “but 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.” She held the infant carefully to keep his airway open. Then she placed him face down on her arm and patted him on the back. No response. She tried again, and the second time he started to breathe again.
“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.
Morales, a Newark resident who joined TSA in late October, previously performed life-saving abdominal thrusts and back blows on adults and children as an EMT, but this was the first time she had performed the life-saving technique on an infant.
“Two months on the job and she’s literally a life-saver,” said Thomas Carter, TSA’s Federal Security Director for New Jersey. “Officer Morales’s quick reaction and actions helped ensure that this family will have a happy holiday season. Her actions were inspiring.”
“I saw the video afterward,” Morales said. “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.”
“If Officer Morales did not utilize her critical thinking, knowledge and quick response, perhaps we could have had a terrible outcome,” said TSA Manager Ayrana Frazier. “In the moment Officer Morales was selfless, and her priority was to save a life. We are proud to call her one of our own.”