Thanks to this cop, her dad can breathe easy.
The heroic detective who saved a choking baby on a Bronx highway recalled the pulse-pounding moment the tot coughed and gasped for air — saying he’s now thrilled that “she’s gonna be here for Christmas.”
Det. First Grade Michael Greaney, 40 — a dad of two toddlers — was heading to work at 8:45 a.m. Wednesday when he spotted a BMW speeding down the shoulder of the Bronx River Parkway, he told The Post Friday.
“I followed the vehicle, turned my lights on,” he said. “[The dad] rolled down his window and yelled, ‘My baby’s choking!’”
The quick-thinking cop grabbed the 8-month-old girl out of her car seat, flipped her over and hit her a dozen times on the back “until something dislodged.”
“I didn’t see anything or feel anything come out, but she let out a cough, like she had the relief,” said Greaney, who works in the office of the Chief of Detectives.
“She let out a little cry, which obviously we know that If you’re talking or crying, you’re not choking. So that [was] a good sign,” he said.
Greaney — who has a 3-year old and a 1-and-a-half year-old — stayed calm in the moment but said he understands how horrified the fellow father must have been.
“[There are] definitely all sorts of emotion, panic, shock, terrified and everything,” he said.
“So I’m glad that I was able to relieve him of those emotions, and I’m happy that she’s gonna be here for Christmas.”
Once the baby was breathing again, a nurse pulled over to help, he said.
“She said, ‘She’s all good. She’s breathing. You can give her back to dad,’” Greaney recalled.
“He just said, ‘Thank you,’ and I told him to go home and watch a YouTube video on how to do the Heimlich, so if this ever happens again, he can clear it himself,” he said.
“I set her back into the car seat, and I took off,” said Greaney — who later learned dramatic footage of him saving the baby’s life had gone viral.
“I told a couple people. I didn’t think it was gonna go like this, no way,” he said.
Greaney said he later spoke to the girl’s dad, who told him that she was doing just fine.
“I feel good… that I saved her,” he said — but the fact that it was caught on camera is the only part that’s rare.
“There’s cops doing stuff like this every day that don’t get caught on video,” Greaney added. “It’s nice to have one story get told, but it’s not a rarity.
“But [it’s] ultimately a happy day,” he said.
