{"id":81759,"date":"2025-07-21T22:46:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T22:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/81759\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T22:46:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T22:46:12","slug":"right-place-at-the-right-time-dallas-va-officer-saves-choking-toddlers-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/81759\/","title":{"rendered":"Right place at the right time: Dallas VA officer saves choking toddler’s life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DALLAS<\/strong> – A Dallas Veterans Affairs officer was in the right place at the right time to save a young boy\u2019s life earlier this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The entire encounter took place in less than a minute. But for the 2-year-old who was choking, every second counted.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

For Cpl. Lee Higginbotham, what started as a routine trip to the gas station on July 12 turned into a life-or-death situation.<\/p>\n

Cpl. Higginbotham left the Dallas Veteran Affairs Medical Center campus to refuel his patrol car. He pulled into a nearby QuikTrip and that\u2019s when his work day suddenly changed.<\/p>\n

“Two people came running towards my squad car with the choking sign,” he said.<\/p>\n

A 2-year-old boy was choking in the parking lot.<\/p>\n

Higginbotham\u2019s body camera captured the chaotic scene. The 44-year-old Army veteran ran over and began doing back blows to try to dislodge the object. It didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

\"Dallas Dallas VA officer saves choking toddler | RAW<\/a> <\/p>\n

Body camera video shows Dallas VA Cpl. Lee Higginbotham rushing to save a choking 2-year-old boy at a gas station. The officer was just there to fill up with gas. He happened to be at the right place at the right time to save the little boy’s life.<\/p>\n

Higginbotham remained calm while he radioed for help. Then he turned the boy around and performed the Heimlich Maneuver.<\/p>\n

The stubborn piece of hot dog finally dislodged. The boy\u2019s breathing returned, and the color began to come back to his face.<\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

“I knew I needed to help the child clear his airway. That was my No. 1,” Higginbotham said. “It was nerve-racking, but I was happy to be able to help him. I would hope that someone would do that for my child if they were in danger and I wasn\u2019t there.”<\/p>\n

The child\u2019s grandmother and bystanders said they were grateful to the fast-acting police corporal.<\/p>\n

Higginbotham said he thinks about the boy to this day, wondering how he\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n

He also said he went home that night and hugged his own children extra tight.<\/p>\n

The Source:<\/b> FOX 4 obtained the body camera footage and FOX 4’s Alex Boyer talked to Cpl. Higginbotham to gather details for this story.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dallas<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS – A Dallas Veterans Affairs officer was in the right place at the right time to save…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":81760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,6082,1596,7290,50,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-81759","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-crime-publicsafety","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-county","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114893657390572185","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}