Gas station employees credited for quick response to help save infant's life

TAUNTON, Mass. – Employees from a Speedway gas station are being credited for helping save an infant’s life.

Ten-month-old Zachary Wheaton was born with a hole in his heart the size of a straw. He was released Tuesday after spending two weeks in the hospital for throat reconstruction surgery, but as she was taking him back to the hospital Wednesday morning his mother Brittany noticed he wasn’t breathing.

“I pulled over at Dunkin Donuts. I didn’t hear anything. I tapped the back of the car seat. He wasn’t moving or anything,” she said. “He was white, he was drooling, I’ve never seen a child so lifeless.”

Zachary’s mother pulled into the parking lot of a Speedway gas station to ask for help, and the manager called 911 while mom began CPR on her young son.

“From hearing raspy breathing to nothing, it kind of made my mommy sense, something isn’t right,” she said. “I immediately took him out and started CPR, so I was giving him breaths.”

Within two minutes, paramedics arrived on the scene to perform life-saving while they took him to Morton Hospital where he was stabilized.

“I was in panic mode, it was amazing how the adrenaline kicked in. I need to do this, a feeling came over me,” Wheaton told Boston 25 News over Facetime from the Tufts, where Zachary has been moved.

The Wheaton family said they are just so thankful to everyone, for saving their son’s life, and they urge everyone to learn CPR.

Zachary will remain at Tufts for a couple of days as a team of doctors and nurses monitors his recovery after another surgery.

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