By Abbe Smith
The New Haven Register
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Aldermen Monday honored first responders and a dispatcher for their roles in helping to save the lives of a baby in respiratory arrest in November, and a pregnant woman who fled an armed man and jumped into a river in October.
The first award went to dispatcher Robert Grauer, who took a call about an infant not breathing and gave the mother instructions on performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
The incident occurred Nov. 25 and was captured in a dramatic 911 call during which Grauer can be heard calmly instructing the mother on how to get the baby breathing again.
During the recording, you can hear Grauer telling a panicked- sounding mother how to save her baby. She repeatedly tells Grauer that the infant is not breathing.
“Wake up please baby. Wake up please baby,” she says.
At one point after the mother has been performing CPR and mouth- to-mouth resuscitation, she tells Grauer she can hear a breath.
When paramedics arrived, they transported the baby to an area hospital. The baby survived.
Alderman Thomas Lehtonen, D-27, read a citation honoring Grauer.
“You are not only a hero, but a credit to the emergency medical dispatch,” he said.
Grauer’s father, sister and girlfriend attended the aldermanic meeting to watch him being honored. Sister Liz Grauer said her brother informed her of his heroic action via a text message.
“I have a 6-month-old daughter, so I was pretty touched,” she said.
Grauer said he was just doing his job. A former volunteer firefighter in Newtown for five years, Grauer had been working as a dispatcher for eight months when the call came in the day after Thanksgiving. He had performed CPR before as a firefighter, but said it is quite different giving instructions over the phone.
“I just kept assuring her that help is on the way,” he said.
In the October incident, police and firefighters responded to a report of a woman jumping into the Quinnipiac River. The woman later told police she was trying to escape an armed man who tried to attack her.
When police and firefighters arrived at the scene on Front Street in the Fair Haven section of the city, the woman was treading water amid strong currents in the river.
Police Sgt. Tony Zona, district manager in the Fair Haven section, said at the time, officers were taking off their gun belts and getting ready to jump in the river to rescue the woman. He praised first responders for a job well done, and credited a local resident with playing an integral role in the rescue.
“It was great to see Ian Christmann coming across the river in his kayak,” he said.
As Christmann pulled the woman to shore with his kayak, police formed a human chain, leaning over the seawall toward the water. Zona said Officer Roger Kergaravat was held up by his gun belt as he pulled the woman from the river to safety.
Alderman Alphonse Paolillo Jr., D-17, read a citation honoring the responders and praised them for their teamwork.
“This is an example of the exemplary work performed every day by our emergency responders,” he said.
Police and firefighters later located the man who was allegedly chasing the woman and arrested him.
Steven Freytus-Rivera of New Haven was arrested on multiple charges, including criminal attempt to commit aggravated sexual assault, second-degree threatening, first-degree robbery, assault on a pregnant person and weapons charges.
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