‘He’s our hero’: Family grateful to deputy for saving 6-month-old after fatal crash
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — A 6-month-old baby is in a St. Petersburg hospital and a family is thankful after a deputy saved the child from a deadly crash.
The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office said a motorcyclist was going more than 100 mph when he crashed into a car with a mother and two little girls’ inside. The motorcyclist died.
The baby is at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Pete. The family said she has a long road to recovery, but if it weren’t for the Charlotte County deputy sergeant’s heroic actions, they would’ve had a different outcome.
Deputy Sgt. David Musgrove was on duty when the motorcyclist sped by him. Just seconds later, he drove up on a horrific scene.
VIDEO: Florida deputy saves 6-month-old’s life after high-speed crash
“I saw the pile of rubble but then I heard screaming coming from a car,” Musgrove said. When I looked over, I saw the motorcyclist who was obviously, in my opinion, deceased, half in the car and half out of the car.”
“I remember looking to my left and I just see him and a big, bright light and a crash and my ear was ringing. All I could hear was Ariel, my daughter screaming,” said Kayleigh Foley, the child’s mother.
Foley’s two little girls, 3-year-old Ariel, and 6-month-old Lola, were in the backseat.
Musgrove said he ran over and got Ariel out of the car.
“As I started removing her, she starts saying: ‘no, my other baby, my other baby.’ I didn’t see a baby to begin with, but then I looked underneath a motorcycle helmet and a body, and I saw another baby underneath,” he said.
He flagged another driver to stop and hold the toddler so he could get to the baby.
“She was lifeless, I checked for a pulse, I didn’t feel a pulse,” Musgrove said.
Musgrove performed CPR until EMS arrived and he felt Lola take a breath.
Life-saving efforts her family said they will never forget.
“Because of officer Dave Musgrove, she’s still here,” said Lisa Foley, the baby’s grandmother.
“He’s our hero,” Kayleigh Foley said.
“He is. He will forever be our hero,” Lisa Foley said. “And undying gratitude from every person in our family. We will never repay him for what he did, because what he did for us was life changing.”
Lola is still in the hospital in a medically induced coma.
For Kayleigh Foley, losing her daughter could’ve been an even bigger sorrow than the one she was already carrying.
“She was born two days after I lost my fiancé. She, my daughters mean a lot to me, but she means a lot to me as well and I just couldn’t lose her,” she said.
Musgrove said he has been talking to the grandmother multiple times a day, has spoken with the mother and plans on visiting Lola in the hospital.
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