Hero Deputies Reunited With Baby They Saved

LAKEWOOD, CA — When Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputy Tyler Milton saw the car plow through red lights on busy Lakewood Boulevard, he figured he was dealing with a drunken driver or maybe a car thief.

He wasn't expecting to find himself holding a baby's life in his hands. But the car stopped that night of Aug. 27, and Yasser Hanna got out holding the limp body of his son 9-month-old Steven. "My son dying, my son dying," he cried.

It was a heart-stopping sight, but Milton couldn't waste a single second.

"Mr. Hanna got out of the car, and he was crying, and he was pretty hysterical," Milton said. "And that's when I saw the baby; and the baby's eyes were open, but he wasn't breathing, he wasn't responsive. So, I got on the radio ... and let everybody know that I had a baby not breathing, and I started CPR right away."

Deputy Alissa Farrington was the nearest officer on patrol.

"I got there first," she said. "I see him in the middle of Lakewood Boulevard giving CPR on the baby, like in the middle of the street. And he was like, `we gotta go,' and I was like, `OK, let's go."

The deputies got Steven breathing again as they raced him to the hospital. Hospital staffers were waiting for their arrival, and the baby was rushed inside. Steven, who had been suffering from the flu when he stopped breathing, spent four days recovering in the hospital.

On Monday, the heroic deputies were reunited with the baby they saved and the family overcome with gratitude. Yasser Hanna and Steven's mother, Reda Felamon, brought Steven to the Lakewood sheriff's station to meet his heroes.

“I thank all the officers who helped me,” Hanna told the Long Beach Post. “The only thing I wanted to do is to keep my son [alive].”

Milton held Steven in his arms for the first time since he saved him Monday.

"I was happy to see the baby alive and healthy and smiling and playful," he said, adding that he was grateful he could be there that fateful day for Steven's frantic parents.

“I can’t imagine what they were feeling at the moment,” Milton told the Post.

City News Service contributed to this report. Photos courtesy of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.