2 City Employees Honored For Saving Baby's Life

AURORA, IL — Two heroic City of Aurora employees were honored at Tuesday's City Council meeting for saving a 1-year-old baby's life.

At the start of the meeting, city staff, Mayor Richard Irvin gathered along with an Aurora resident and her son to present the two staffers, Daniel Chavez and Josh Elrod, with an award for their bravery. Each was also presented with street signs boasting their names.

"Whenever someone goes above and beyond here in the city of Aurora," Irvin said, "we like to give them an award that we call an MVP award because when they stepped up and saved little Julian's life and put breath back in his lifeless body, they became the most valuable players for the city of Aurora."

The two water and sewer division staffers were going about their routine duties on Sept. 19 when they heard a startling scream.

The wailing was coming from a nearby house where a mother, Paulina Rodriguez, discovered her son, Julian, unresponsive on a couch before she grabbed him and ran outside to find help.

City officials said Chavez and Elrod rushed down the block to her yard. Despite a language barrier, the men were able to help her with Chavez translating and communicating with Rodriguez.

As Elrod called 911, Chavez performed CPR, and by the time paramedics arrived, the baby was breathing and crying loudly.

"Neither one of these gentlemen thought they were going to do anything other than their job that they do every single day ... but when they saw this little boy in distress and heard [his] mother crying out for her child, they jumped into action, not prepared, not knowing what would happen," Irvin said.

He continued: "They gave him that opportunity to live the rest of his young life."

The Aurora staff members weren't the only ones who were awarded Tuesday. The little boy — "he's still alive and clearly full of energy," Chief Communications Officer Clayton Muhammad said during the presentation — was also presented with a bag full of toys, earning another round of applause from the audience.