Dispatcher helps Brookline mother save 1-year-old child

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

BROOKLINE -- An emergency dispatcher talked a mother through CPR today inside a Brookline apartment when her 1-year-old child stopped breathing, helping the child quickly regain the ability to breathe, police said.

Brookline police Lieutenant Philip Harrington, a department spokesman, said the dispatcher began speaking with the infant’s 10-year-old brother inside the family apartment at 58 Dwight St. at about 2:30 p.m. The dispatcher informed the youth that he would have to begin performing CPR on the child while rescuers were en route.

The siblings’ mother was then able to get on the phone, and the dispatcher told her how to begin the early stages of CPR by taking steps including repositioning the child onto the floor, Harrington said.

“Almost immediately you can hear” the child begin to start partially breathing on the 911 recording, which will be publicly available tomorrow, Harrington said.

He said the child, who he did not identify, was conscious when rescuers arrived and was taken to a local hospital.

“It’s a good story,” he said, adding that the dispatcher will also be available for interviews tomorrow.

The child’s condition was not immediately known tonight. His family could not be reached when a Globe reporter visited their apartment after the incident.