While driving to pick up his 16-month-old daughter from daycare on August 4, Tucker Woodcock, a firefighter with Effingham County Fire Rescue, received a distressing alert that a nearby infant was unconscious and choking on an object lodged in her throat.
Although he was off duty, he realized he was only minutes away, and he immediately rerouted to the emergency.
Upon arrival, Woodcock immediately saw the situation as it was. The infant's grandmother held the unconscious infant in her arms, and Woodcock jumped into action as he began performing back-thrusts, a technique used to dislodge objects from the throat. Shortly after beginning the action, Woodcock reported hearing a small bead hit the floor, the little girl's body coming back to life soon after followed by a wave of relief from Woodcock.
About three minutes later, EMS arrived and transported the infant to the hospital to ensure there were no lingering complications or internal injuries.
Following the incident, Woodcock was relieved to find out that the little girl was healthy and doing well. Later, the mother brought the baby and her twin brother to the fire station, giving Woodcock the chance to take a photo with the little girl—a moment of reassurance that confirmed she was going to be okay.
Tucker Woodcock is the son of Justin and Tanice Price and the grandson of Hazel Hendrix of Statesboro.
"He's always had what I would call a servant's heart," Tanice Price said, expressing how proud she was of her son. "He was just doing what anybody would've done in his position.
Though he acted quickly and his training took over, Woodcock admitted that the situation was especially "gut-wrenching," hitting close to home seeing that he was minutes away from retrieving his own daughter from daycare.
Now nearly five years into his firefighting career, Woodcock says he didn't choose the job for the fame or glory—no one does. Raised in a law enforcement family, he knew early on that he wanted to serve others, and firefighting became a way he could do just that.
"It's not really a job," said Woodcock, who spent just as many days with his team as he did with his family. "It's a life."