A Florida sheriff’s deputy has been hailed as a hero for rescuing a 6-month-old baby trapped in a wrecked car and giving her lifesaving treatment, moments after witnessing a crash from his patrol car.
A motorcycle going more than 100 mph sped past Charlotte County Deputy Sgt. Dave Musgrove just after 7:30 p.m. Feb. 8 and slammed into a vehicle carrying a mother and two small children in Englewood, the sheriff’s office said Friday in a news release.
The driver of the motorcycle was found dead at the scene, their body wedged into the rear window of the driver’s side of the vehicle, according to the release.
There was crying coming from the car, officials said.
“As Sgt. Musgrove rushed to check on the victims, he heard the driver yell to him, pleading to help her children,” the sheriff’s office said.
The dramatic rescue was captured on dashcam and Musgrove’s body camera.
The terrified mother, Kayleigh Foley, can be heard in video released by the sheriff’s office screaming, “My baby!”
“I remember honking my horn to tell him, ‘I’m alive! I’m alive! I’m here,'” she later told NBC affiliate WBBH of Fort Myers in an interview.
Video shows Musgrove removing a 3-year-old child, named Ariel, from a booster seat, and Foley telling him there was another child, a baby named Lola, in the car. Musgrove flagged down a passing driver to hold Ariel.
Underneath the body of the motorcyclist, Musgrove found a car seat with a baby who was apparently unconscious, the sheriff’s office said. More bystanders arrived and helped move the body off the child and cut free the car seat.
Video shows Musgrove quickly beginning chest compressions on the Lola’s tiny body until she began to breathe again. Emergency medical services then arrived and continued lifesaving treatment, before confirming they detected a pulse.
Since the crash, Musgrove has called daily to check on Lola, who remains in the intensive care unit with a brain injury, according to WBBH.
Lisa Foley, Kayleigh’s mother, told the news station: “The first thing he said to me, he said ‘I really hate all that recognition, I was doing my job.’ I said, ‘Too bad, buddy, you’re getting it’ … We will never repay him for what he did. What he did for us was life-changing.”
“I lost my fiance 6 months ago, so what was going through my head was, ‘I can’t lose anybody else,'” Kayleigh Foley said in the interview from the hospital, where Lola was recovering. “He is such a genuine person and you can’t teach that in the police academy.”
Kayleigh Foley and Ariel are doing well, the sheriff’s office said.
In a news conference, Musgrove said he “wanted to do as much as I could to help her.”
He continued: “I’m caring. We’re all cops. We care. She’s innocent. She didn’t deserve this.”
Sheriff Bill Prummell commended Musgrove’s actions while thanking bystanders who helped him.
“His poise and calm demeanor in a scene of chaos and tragedy ultimately saved the life of a beautiful child,” the sheriff said. “This was a senseless accident that resulted in a life lost, but it would have been two lives had Dave not been there.”
