WATCH – Officers Rescue Three-Year-Old Trapped in Sinking Car: ‘God Is Good’

A three-year-old is alive after a harrowing incident thanks to the swift efforts of police officers in Miami-Dade, Florida.

The incident happened on February 27 after driver Orlando Valdes picked up his son, Christopher, and the two were going home to celebrate the boy’s birthday, NBC Miami reported Wednesday.

On their way home an oncoming car appeared to be about to crash into them, Valdes said, so he swerved to avoid it. However, that action sent his car into a canal.

He tried to unfasten Christopher’s car seat as water began filling the vehicle. He knew time was running out, but refused to leave the boy’s side.

That was the moment Miami-Dade Police Sgt. Edward Webster arrived and located the car under a bridge, thanks to bystanders showing him where to go.

Another officer said Webster called for additional units, which rushed to the scene. Video footage shows the officers working to rescue the child as the car continued sinking:

“This one was different because as a father, when you hear a child’s underwater in the vehicle and the parent can’t get them out, the first emotion that clicks in your head is ‘go,'” Officer Emanuel Walton recalled of the incident.

He noted that officers could not see through the water, but someone had to go in, and he did it without even thinking twice.

“I couldn’t see through the water so I had to come back up a couple of times and just basically use touch to figure out what was what inside of the vehicle,” Walton explained.

He eventually found the car seat and dragged it out, along with the child. Officer Junior Clervil performed CPR on the boy who, after several chest compressions, regained his breath.

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is described as “an emergency lifesaving procedure performed when the heart stops beating. Immediate CPR can double or triple chances of survival after cardiac arrest,” per the American Heart Association.

Christopher was transported to a hospital, but is now doing well.

“The main thing is that God is good, and despite whatever else is going on in your life, you always have to make that time and make that opportunity to be able to assist,” Walton stated.

The Miami-Dade Police Department officers at the scene that day embody the agency’s core values: integrity, respect, service, and fairness.