LAPD Sergeant and Officer Team up to Save a Baby’s Life in Sun Valley NR12550cj

Los Angeles:  On November 27, 2012,  at 9:51 a.m., LAPD Foothill Officer Leroy Alley was patrolling alone in the area of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Roscoe Boulevard.  He received a radio call of a screaming woman in the 8200 block of Laurel Canyon Boulevard.  When Officer Alley arrived at the scene, he got out of his car and canvassed the area looking for any victims outside of the location.  He was immediately alerted that the call was a medical emergency.  Foothill Sergeant Roland Fogel heard the call and also immediately responded to the scene.

As Sergeant Fogel and Officer Alley entered the front gate of the residence a woman came running out of the house holding a small female baby in her arms.  The officer could barely get inside the gate as the woman handed the child over to Officer Alley begging for him to save the lifeless baby.  She told the officers that the baby fell into the toilet.  She tried everything to resuscitate her daughter with CPR but was unsuccessful.  “The baby’s hair was dripping with water, her face was blue and her eyes were rolled back, she wasn’t  breathing,” said Alley.  

Sergenant Fogel, a former firefighter, immediately called for a rescue ambulance.  Alley immediately placed the baby face down on his right forearm with her head resting in his palm in an attempt to expel water from the child’s lungs.  Both officers began patting and rubbing the baby’s back in attempt to get a response.  Within 15 seconds of Fogel’s and Alley’s actions the baby regained consciousness and began crying.  A relieved Fogel explained “When the baby started crying it was just an extraordinary feeling for both of us.”

Sergeant Fogel immediately held the baby and began comforting her and rubbing her back while Officer Alley kept the mother calm and prepared her to go with the ambulance.  Officer Alley also tended to the woman’s 3-year-old child.  The baby was airlifted from a local high school parking lot and taken to Children’s Hospital where she was treated and released.  Thanks to the heroic efforts by these two LAPD officers the child is alive and in good condition back at home with her mother.   Foothill Lieutenant Patty Blake explained “If it had not been for the quick thinking of Sergeant Fogel and Officer Alley, this story may have had a much different ending.”

For more information on the story or to schedule interviews please call LAPD Foothill Areas’ front office at (818) 756-8860.