Life-Saving Deputy Duo Brings An Unconscious Toddler Back From The Brink of Death
Photo: Kevin Lopez and his dad
CITY OF INDUSTRY – Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Captain Tim Murakami held a news conference Thursday to tout the quietly heroic efforts of two deputies who were key in saving the life of a La Puente toddler on Monday.
Capt. Murakami was happily suprised by the deputies under his command at the Industry station when they asked him Wednesday for a few stuffed animals to deliver to a young patient in hospital. They had saved his life and, according to the captain, “They didn’t make a big deal out of it. This is what deputies do.”
LASD Deputy Erik Nava responded to the call when toddler Kevin Lopez was trapped by a motorized apartment complex gate in La Puente. Part of his back got crushed when his arm got lodged in the gate.
Within a minute, Deputy Nava arrived at the apartment complex Main Street to find the property manager – who’d freed the boy by kicking open the gate – holding the lifeless child. Deputy Nava first administered CPR, then team-administered the life-saving breaths of air when Deputy Jose Cruz arrived.
Their 3-4 minute joint effort was met by arriving paramedics who applied the resuscitator mask. A cry rang out of the toddler’s mouth.
Capt. Murakami announced, “The emergency room doctor who saw Kevin confirmed: had Cruz and Nava not performed CPR, Kevin would have died.”
Deputy Nava is no stranger to this type of life-giving moment. A six-month-old boy in La Puente City Park was given the benefit of Nava’s breath-of-life expertise when he stoppped breathing in 2015.
The entire Lopez family attended the news conference outside of the City of Industry Station. Deputy Cruz was pleased to see the released-from-hospital toddler looking happy and healthy.
Father Rogelio Loped announced, “We feel very grateful. Our child was dead for several minutes, and now we have him back and he’s OK.”
