MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WREG) — A 10-month-old baby injured in a wreck on a busy interstate is alive after an ICU nurse at Regional One jumped into action Tuesday.
Brooke Moody has been a nurse for less than a year, but first responders say she acted quickly to start life-saving CPR on the baby when she spotted a wreck on Interstate 40 in West Memphis, Arkansas.
Moody was headed to work in Memphis after shopping at the West Memphis Walmart when a crash occurred just west of the Hernando Desoto Bridge.
“I never actually saw the wreck, but the 18-wheeler in front of me swerved, and I swerved too, because there was a bunch of glass in the road,” she said.
Moody says she saw people inside a damaged car and instinctively stopped to help.
“A girl starts yelling, ‘He’s turning purple!’ And she was trying to get her baby out of the back seat. So I jerked the door open,” Moody said.
She says she told the woman that she was a nurse, and went into life-saving mode.
“I pulled the baby out of the car seat and his mouth was purple, so I knew he wasn’t breathing,” she said. “So I started giving CPR on the baby.”
📲 Download the WREG App today and stay up to date with breaking news and weather.
📧 Sign up for WREG newsletters and have the latest top stories sent right to your inbox.
📡 See more breaking news, local news and weather from WREG.com for Memphis and the Mid South.
Moody says she got the baby’s mother to breathe into the child’s mouth while Moody continued chest compressions.
As Moody worked, West Memphis firefighters were dispatched along with two emergency units from CEMS Ambulance Service.
Hudson Hallum, the owner of CEMS, said when his crews got on the scene, he was impressed the Good Samaritan nurse was still rendering aid alongside his staff.
“The nurse that was on the scene to help start CPR had gone as far as even getting into the back of the ambulance and continued to assist our crews in working in the child,” Hallum said.
And for Moody, nothing compared to that 10-month-old finally breathing on his own.
“That’s something that I’ve never experienced before,” Moody said. “I definitely think that it would be a different situation if I didn’t decide to stop and help.”
In addition to the baby, a 2-year-old was taken to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital by private vehicle, and the mother of the 10 month old suffered a broken arm.
We have reached out to the Arkansas Sate Police for an accident report so we can update victim’s conditions, but have not received the report.