Mom rushes to save 8-year-old being strangled by seat belt, Massachusetts cops say

“‘Mom, I can’t breathe.’”

After hearing her son call out from the backseat, Siobhan Sherbovich turned to see her 8-year-old “basically hanging from the ceiling, unconscious, blue as can be” — with a seat belt wrapped around his neck, WFXT reported.

“She pulled the car over and found that the boy had pulled the seat belt loose and wrapped it around his neck, apparently activating the belt’s locking mechanism,” police in Bedford, Massachusetts wrote in a news release.

Sherbovich couldn’t pull the seat belt off her son’s neck, so she ran into a nearby hair salon close by and borrowed a pair of scissors, according to the Bedford Police Department.

“At the time I didn’t know if it was open or not,” Sherbovich told WBZ. “I was ready to break down windows.”

She was able to cut her son loose and he fell out of the car, unconscious, WBZ reported. Sherbovich gave him CPR while waiting for first responders to arrive, according to police.

“Don’t ask me when or how I remember to do that but I did it,” Sherbovich told WFXT.

The boy started breathing and regained consciousness, asking his mom, “What happened?” WBZ reported. First responders transported him to a nearby hospital where he was evaluated, according to police.

Doctors don’t expect he’ll experience any lasting impacts from the incident, police said. Bedford Police Chief Robert Bongiorno said Sherbovich’s actions “were nothing short of heroic,” according to WFXT.

“This was a very dangerous situation, one that I have not encountered previously in more than 25 years of public safety experience,” Bongiorno said in a statement. “Thankfully, a tragedy was averted.”

The police department encourages people to review the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s safety guidelines, which include keeping kids in booster seats and “shoulder seat belts” until they pass the “Seat Belt Fit Test.”