Dispatcher Helps Mother Save Baby

A fire dispatcher successfully talked a distraught mother through the resuscitation of her 1-year-old daughter, who fell into a bathtub full of water Saturday night.

Valerie Williamson of the Orange County Fire Department received the frantic call from the mother, whom officials did not identify, at 7:23 p.m. from a house on El Toro Road.

“My baby’s not breathing!” the mother told Williamson. “She fell down in the bathtub and she’s not breathing! She’s turning blue! Tell me what to do!”

Williamson, a 20-year department veteran, said she described the resuscitation procedure over the phone to the mother and, minutes later, she heard a gurgling cough from the infant.

“She told me her daughter was OK and she thanked me,” Williamson said.