Sheriff honors dispatcher, deputy for saving infant’s life

Sheriff Orvis Campbell is crediting the quick action of two employees of the Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office with saving the life of a one-month-old baby boy April 3.

Deputy Adam Shaw and 911 telecommunicator Michelle Colvin were presented with life saving awards and commendations at a ceremony May 5. The life saving awards come from the Buckeye State Sheriff’s Association at the request of Campbell.

At around 1 a.m. April 3, a call came into the 911 center regarding an unresponsive infant in full cardiac arrest at an apartment in Lawrence Township. Colvin took the call.

According to a release from the sheriff’s office, she gave instructions to the father on how to begin to perform CPR.

“I did my best to hurry and get the CPR instructions for infants,” said Colvin, who has worked at the dispatch center for five years.

“Under the 911 emergency dispatch protocol, she guided him to start providing CPR,” the sheriff said. “CPR in infants is considerably different than CPR in adults, and she guided him through all the steps, placing the baby on the floor, what to check, checking airways and doing all of that.”

Colvin said she tried to be clear and precise and enunciate everything so the father would understand. “You have to be calm to get them to be as calm as possible,” she said.

Shaw, a deputy stationed in Lawrence Township, was nearby and arrived on the scene 56 seconds after he was dispatched. He ran upstairs to the apartment where the child was and took over CPR from the father.

He has been a deputy for about three years, coming to the Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office in June 2024.

“It was quite an impressive scene when you watch the video (from his body camera) because as the deputy gets there, he exits the car, and goes at a full sprint up the stairs and immediately takes over the CPR,” Campbell said.

Soon after, an off-duty Bolivar firefighter who lived nearby, Gabriel Ash, also arrived at the scene and took over performing CPR. This allowed Shaw to go to his vehicle and get his AMBU Bag.

AMBU is short for Artificial Manual Breathing Unit bag. An AMBU Bag is also known as a bag-valve-mask device or manual resuscitator. It is a hand-held medical tool used to push air into the lungs of patients who are not breathing or are struggling to breathe adequately, according to heartstartcpr.net.

After several rounds of CPR and the use of Shaw’s AMBU Bag to provide oxygen, the infant began to breathe on his own.

Shaw said he felt a great sense of relief at that moment. “Without everybody involved, this would have had a different outcome.”

Colvin said she stayed on the line while all of this was going on. The father had put his phone on speaker, so she could hear what was going on. She heard when the baby began to cry after he resumed breathing.

“That was the best thing I could have ever heard at that time,” she said.

Colvin has provided instructions to parents before on how to resuscitate a child, including twice in one day.

Once the EMS crew from the Bolivar Fire Department arrived and stabilized the child, he was transferred to Aultman Hospital in Canton.

“Speaking with the hospital, they have assured us that this immediate CPR is what saved the child's life,” Campbell said.

“It was exactly how you would like them to act. It was really rewarding for me to see that kind of service to the community, because there was no hesitation. I've been in some of those situations, and believe me, there's usually some hesitation. You're not sure what to do, you're assessing. In this case, there was just no hesitation.”