Photo: isayildiz / E+ / Getty Images
Late in the evening of July 24th, New Mexico State Police Officer Ismael Perez saw a car run a red light and quickly started pursuing the vehicle. The car was being driven by Miguel Covarrubias who was on his way to the hospital with his pregnant wife when she delivered the child in the car. They pulled into the emergency room entrance of Mimbres Memorial Hospital and Perez followed.
When Perez approached the car, he initially thought a toddler was in distress, but instead he found a newborn baby lying in the passenger seat. "As soon as I opened the door, I see a newborn baby on the seat lying there motionless,” Perez recalls, “It kind of threw me off for a slight second.” Perez noticed the baby’s umbilical cord was compressed and began performing back slaps on the newborn. Just as hospital staff ran up to them, the baby took his first breath and started crying.
The whole ordeal was captured on Perez's body camera, and now the officer, who is himself a father of three, is being hailed as a hero. And nobody feels that way more than Miguel Covarrubias. "To me, in my eyes, he's a hero,” the new dad says, “He helped me in what I would say was one of the scariest moments in my life." Perez is humbled by the experience, but he feels like he was doing what anyone would have done in his position, and he adds that he’s just glad things turned out so well.