A 911 dispatcher at Virginia's Galax Police Department was recently faced by a dilemma whether or not to break the rule and help save a little boy's life.
When Melissa Grable's 17-month-old son Aidan Walker suddenly became lifeless while taking a nap, the boy's grandmother Cheri Grable had screamed to her to call 911, according to CBS6.
"I scooped him up in my arms, at that point he was lifeless. And I yelled out to her 'dial 911, dial 911, dial it now,'" the grandmother recalled.
The boy apparently had a seizure and stopped breathing, so his mother made a frantic 911 call and it was dispatcher Tim Webb who was at the receiving end, Fox2 Now reported.
After Grable told him there in no one on the other end who knew CPR, Webb made a bold decision. While he himself knows CPR, the Galax Police Department has no emergency medical dispatch certification so dispatchers are not allowed to give CPR directions over the phone.
"This is my only son, I can't lose him," the mother said at the time, to which Webb replied, "I'm not gonna let you lose him. Put him on your kitchen table, okay?"
With his chief's permission, Webb decided to break the rule and take a leap of faith. He instructed the mother to barely pinch the boy's nose off, put her mouth over top of his mouth, and blow in it just a second and see.
A few weeks after Webb illegally saved a toddler's life, the Grables visited the Galax Police Department to personally thank their hero dispatcher.