Heroic effort ROTTERDAM Passer-by saves baby’s life Quick thinking, pen help avert tragedy at accident scene BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
Norman Torres was driving home Thursday afternoon when he came upon a scene of terror and confusion on Route 5S in Rotterdam Junction. And he knew exactly what to do. Before him a small car had crashed into a utility pole, shearing it. A young woman sat outside beside the shattered, gray car. She clutched a small bundle firmly to her chest and rocked it back and forth, oblivious to the downed live wires, to the wreckage of her car. Her thoughts were with her baby, snuggled tightly in the bundle, her fear mounting that something was wrong with the child. “She was screaming, ‘My baby! My baby!’ ” Torres said. The baby had turned blue and one of its eyes was swollen shut. It did not move. “The guy behind me noticed the baby wasn’t breathing,” Torres said. The mother was unharmed. A crowd watched, seemingly fixed to the spot, Torres said. He walked over to the mother and looked into her terrifi ed eyes. With tears in his own, he offered his help. “I looked right at her and said, ‘Listen, the baby is going to be fine,’ ” and then he took the baby from the mother’s arms and saved its life. Rotterdam Police Lt. Mike Brown said witnesses confirmed the baby was not breathing shortly after the accident. “Mr. Torres took the baby and provided CPR and brought the baby back to life,” he said. Torres, a retired Army soldier who “learned to do a little of everything in the service,” including CPR, took the baby to his truck. He laid the infant on the passenger seat, checked the child over for external injuries and prepared to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. But then he stopped. “I could not really give the baby mouth-tomouth,” he said. The child is tiny, just 3 months old, and he is a large man. So he improvised. He took a pen from his pocket, broke it in half and put one end into the child’s mouth to blow into it. “I gave it six nice shots and the baby started to scream. He — I think it was a boy — grabbed my finger so damn tight and wouldn’t let go,” Torres said. He also opened one eye and spied Torres for the first time. From the strength of the grip and the way the child kicked afterwards, “I knew it was OK. It was a beautiful sound. It is something I will never forget,” Torres said. He plans to keep the pen as a souvenir. When the young mother — Lily M. Salcedo, 21, of 1301 Third Ave., Schenectady — heard her child scream, a calmness took her, Torres said. The child’s father came over to Torres and hugged him, thanking him for saving the child. The father’s name was not available. Paramedics soon arrived and transported the child to Albany Medical Center; the baby’s condition was not available Thursday night. Torres said the whole event was a blur. “I actually don’t remember because it happened so quick. My mind was to save the baby, to keep my promise to the mother. When I told the mother that, I had tears in my eyes,” he said. Torres said he acted because no one else was moving to assist. “I couldn’t just let that happen. It’s in my nature. I knew the mother was very panicked. It was a head injury and her moving the baby back and forth was not helping,” he said. “The baby needed attention and to be supported in the proper way.” Torres said he has helped injured people before. He himself is disabled and spends a lot of his time driving around, acting as a chauffeur for his wife and niece, who just had a baby. “It keeps me moving,” he said. He said “God has a tendency to put me in the right place,” citing when he helped a man who was injured after wiping out on black ice two years ago in Wilton and when, as a youth, he saved two people from drowning in Collins Lake. “I’m a hero again. I can’t not give anybody help when they need it,” Torres said. He lives on Elm Avenue in Pattersonville with his wife and two children. The thought of his own children being in danger is a reason why he helps, he said. “It just comes natural. It’s a gift I have. I think very quickly,” Torres said. Rotterdam police said the accident occurred at 3:30 p.m. when Salcedo spun off the road and hit the utility pole. Brown said she may have been trying to avoid another vehicle at the time. He said the child was in a safety seat in the rear of the car. Police are asking anyone who saw the accident to contact them at 355-7331. MEREDITH L. KAISER/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER Above, Norman Torres of Pattersonville, center, along with a first responder, works on stabilizing a baby involved in a car accident on Route 5S in Rotterdam Junction on Thursday. Watching at right are a passer-by and the baby’s mother (in yellow). Below, Torres carries the baby away from power lines as a passer-by looks on.
Family grateful for its ‘angel’ Man saved baby after car accident BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter
Rolando Salcedo was a thankful man Friday. He was thankful that his wife was fine. Thankful that his baby was alive. And thankful for Norman Torres, the man credited with saving their 3-month-old son Desciel, using CPR techniques to revive the infant after a car accident. “The baby is doing very well,” Salcedo said Friday by phone. “I thank God for Mr. Torres. I love that man with all my heart.” Salcedo’s wife Lily was running errands late Thursday afternoon. Desciel had a cough and she was taking him to the doctor. She was heading east on Route 5S in Rotterdam Junction when another driver apparently swerved. She swerved to miss him and hit a pole. The family lives on Third Avenue in Schenectady. The circumstances of the accident remain under investigation by police. Lily was fine. But her baby, in a child safety seat, wasn’t. Desciel wasn’t breathing. All the mother could do was rock the child and wait for paramedics. That is until Torres approached, told her the baby would be fi ne and took the child. Using a pen he’d snapped in hand, he performed the techniques that soon led to the baby’s welcome screams. Arriving paramedics soon sent Desciel on a helicopter ride to Albany Medical Center. He remained there Friday in the pediatric ICU with a minor fracture to his rib cage, his father said. Lily Salcedo spent much of the day there with her son. Rolando Salcedo was at work Thursday when he got the frantic call from his wife. His boss, Tim Bibel, at Railex in the Rotterdam Industrial Park drove him to he scene. “I didn’t know what to expect,” he said, adding later, “I’m still shook up about it.” Rotterdam police confirmed Friday that all vehicles believed to have been involved have been located. Any other witnesses, who have not been interviewed, were asked to contact police. Rolando Salcedo said the family hoped to soon contact Torres to thank him in person. “My family owes him a lot,” Rolando Salcedo said. “We appreciate the fact that he was in the right place at the right time. We’re glad angels are out there. “That man is an angel.”
WOW...this story made it on CNN!! It was on last night! Pretty good,huh?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
ROTTERDAM Crash that hurt baby blamed on mother BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter
The Nov. 1 accident that left a baby unconscious and made a local man into a hero was caused by the baby’s mother, police said Monday. Police believe it was Lily Salcedo who drifted across the center line on Route 5-S, then over-corrected hitting a pole, Rotterdam Police Lt. Michael Brown said. Police base that account on an oncoming driver and another witness. Salcedo contended it was the oncoming driver that was in her lane. “We believe, from the witnesses, that Salcedo was the one who veered into the opposite lane, then apparently she observed the other vehicle and over-corrected,” Brown said. No tickets have been issued, but Brown did not rule out tickets coming. The rescue and resuscitation of Salcedo’s 3-month-old son Desciel gained national attention. At one point, the CBS6 story — with dramatic Daily Gazette photos — was even placed on CNN.com’s home page. Lily Salcedo was running errands late Thursday afternoon when she struck the pole on Route 5S in Rotterdam Junction. She was fine, but her baby, in a child safety seat, wasn’t. Desciel wasn’t breathing. All the mother could do was rock the child and wait for paramedics. That is until Pattersonville resident Norman Torres approached, told her the baby would be fi ne and took the child. Using a pen he’d snapped in half, he blew into the child’s lungs and he revived. Arriving paramedics soon sent Desciel on a helicopter ride to Albany Medical Center. He remained there Friday in the pediatric ICU with a minor fracture to his rib cage, his father Rolando Salcedo said Friday. Family members could not be reached Monday. Rolando Salcedo said Friday the baby was expected to have been released from the hospital over the weekend.
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