CICERO — A Liverpool-area family is celebrating the quick thinking of their babysitter, who gave their 6-month-old baby cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) when he stopped breathing last month.
Cicero resident Mady Alcock, 16, had just put 2-year-old Lyla and 6-month-old Sonny Jude to bed the evening of March 20 when Sonny began crying inconsolably. Alcock brought the baby boy out to the living room to try to soothe him.
“Then he started scream-crying. All of a sudden he stopped instantly and I thought that was weird,” Alcock recalled.
She noticed Sonny had stopped breathing.
“As soon as I saw him turning blue, I started [CPR]. I didn’t even think twice,” Alcock said.
While chest compressions for adult CPR require both hands and can lead to broken ribs, CPR on an infant must be much gentler. A rescuer must use two or three fingers to press down on a baby’s chest. (See sidebar for more information about infant CPR.)
CPR for babies
“It’s a delicate procedure,” Alcock said.
The Red Cross suggests beginning CPR before calling 911, which is what Alcock did. According to her mother, Kristy Sikora, Alcock asked Siri — iPhone’s voice-activated virtual assistant — to call 911.
After a minute or two, Sonny regained consciousness.
“He came to and started crying. He was kind of disoriented and out of it like he didn’t know what happened because he basically died and came back,” Alcock said.
The apartment’s buzzer system was not working, so Alcock had to bring Sonny Jude — and his sleepy sister Lyla, who began singing “I’ve got no shoes on” — downstairs to meet the first responders.
“The one time it doesn’t work is the one time I need it to work,” Alcock said.
Once the first responders showed up, Alcock began to feel the effects of adrenaline rushing through her system. She has type 1 diabetes, so her blood sugar can rise sharply during times of stress.
“When I handed Sonny off to the [paramedic] I was shaking,” Alcock said.
A police officer who responded to the emergency called the children’s mother, Sam Becotte, and waited with Alcock and Lyla until Lyla’s grandfather and Alcock’s father arrived. Sonny Jude was taken to Upstate University Hospital.
Becotte and a friend had decided to go out that Saturday evening to a brewery in Pompey.
“Of course we had to go to Heritage Hill, which is pretty far away,” Becotte said.
Then, her phone rang.
“My heart dropped because you never want to get a call from a police officer,” Becotte said. “We sped-raced there [to Upstate]. I actually got there before the ambulance.”
The hospital ran some tests and concluded that Sonny Jude had suffered a brief resolved unexplained event (BRUE), a 30- to 60-second episode in which a baby can stop breathing or lose consciousness. However, after the family brought Sonny home, the cardiologist called Becotte with a hunch.
“I can’t sleep tonight without knowing you guys are back in the hospital,” the cardiologist said.
Further testing determined that Sonny may have long QT syndrome, a genetic disorder that can cause heart arrhythmia and can lead to fainting, seizures or sudden death. Sonny is now being treated with beta blockers and the family is undergoing genetic testing.
“That’s not a test that they run at birth,” Becotte said. “It’s comforting to know that it’s treatable.”
Alcock has been babysitting Becotte’s children since Lyla was 8 or 9 months old.
“She’s always been amazing,” Becotte said. “I knew she was a good one from the start because she came with a binder for me to fill out with emergency contacts, allergies, medications.”
Alcock said she plans to continue babysitting Becotte’s kids until she goes off to college or until the family moves.
While the adults around her have commended Alcock for keeping a cool head during a crisis, she said she was just following her instincts and CPR training.
“I saved him. It’s crazy to think about it like that,” she said. “Everyone’s congratulating me, but it was natural instinct.”
Becotte is hoping Sonny Jude’s story will inspire caregivers to educate themselves about infant CPR.
“It’s so important to take a CPR lesson because you just don’t know when something like that could happen,” she said.
