Transportation Security Administration officer Cecilia Morales has only been on the job for a few weeks, but her skills from her previous job are already making an impact.

While working at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, Morales leapt over a conveyor belt to save a two-month-old baby who stopped breathing. 

Initially, Morales shouted instructions at the mother, but quickly realized that she would need to get involved. “She was so nervous and I knew if I didn’t get over there, it wasn’t going to be a good outcome,” Morales, a former EMT, said in a statement. “I jumped over the checkpoint conveyor belt rollers and she gave me the baby. I performed the infant Heimlich maneuver on him.”

It took two times for Morales to place the baby face down on her arm and pat him on the back before he began to breathe again.

“The mother was too nervous and in shock to hold her son, so I carried the infant through the walkthrough [the] metal detector,” Morales said.

JUST IN: @TSA officer, a former EMT, hailed as a hero after she jumped over a checkpoint conveyor belt to perform Heimlich on an infant who stopped breathing at ⁦@EWRairport⁩ checkpoint, saving the baby’s life. #TSAHolidayMiracle. The news release: https://t.co/J1yuT05ysw pic.twitter.com/3NfRD7lvPh

— Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson (@TSA_Northeast) December 23, 2021

Security footage of the incident was posted to Twitter, showing Morales springing into action. “Think if she didn’t work that way or the woman was before or after that mark,” one Twitter user said of the rescue. “It was literally a miracle. If she was anywhere else, in the car on the way, at the gate…. anywhere else this would have been a different story.”

Morales said that watching the footage was “mind-blowing.” 

“I saw the video afterward,” she said in the statement. “It was the first time I’ve ever seen myself in action, saving a life. It was mind-blowing to watch. I felt that my training and experience just took over.”

Image source: NY Post