We all know that every day on the job canât be a good one. That sentiment may be even more true for those who work in law enforcement. Youâre meeting people on their worst days, putting your personal safety at risk. And there are even times when you come eerily close to the loss of life itself.
In one such case, what began as a horrific scene on the side of a South Carolina interstate ended as a happy ending for all involved, thanks in part to Officer Jason Marzan.
Marzan heard a radio call saying a toddler had fallen from a moving car.
On October 16, Marzan, who works for the North Charleston Police Department, was responding to a collision when he heard a call that caught his attention, Fox News reported.
He thought he heard âsomething about a child falling out of a moving carâ along Interstate 26. “I was like, ‘Whoa, wait a minute, hold on,’ did they just say a baby fell out of a moving car on the Interstate?” Marzan said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
He had heard correctly.
There was another person on the scene helping.
Thankfully, Marzan wasnât too far from the accident and got there quickly. When he arrived, someone else already was on the scene helping. A woman from Shaw Air Force Base was driving behind the car from which the toddler had been expelled.
The woman initially thought it was a doll. Once she realized it was a real baby, she maneuvered her car so no other vehicles would hit the child on the highway.
The toddler lost half of her arm in the fall.
When Marzan arrived, the toddler’s arm was missing from the elbow down. Marzan and the woman from the Air Force applied a tourniquet to the little girl’s arm to stop the bleeding. Eventually, first responders arrived and took the 2-year-old child to a hospital.
âMy first thought is to make sure nothing else happens to this little girl,â Marzan said of his actions that day. âIt just all kind of kicks in, you know. I have 21 years in the Army, retired. So it just kind of all comes to you, just quick reaction to it, do whatâs first, do whatâs best.â
Surgeons were able to reattach her arm.
When Marzan left the scene that day, he felt uneasy, unsure if the toddler had survived the ordeal.
“Not knowing the status and just having to go on with my day was tough,â he said. âI had a tough time sleeping and luckily, I was able to go to the hospital and see her.â
When he did see the child, he realized she was healing well. “I got the hospital and the doctors showed me to her room and I was thinking, ‘Oh, she’s alive, this is great news, this is awesome,'” Marzan recalled.
Not only was the girl alive, but doctors also were able to reattach her arm and she would be able to go back home in a few days.
“Speaking with the surgeon and the family at the hospital, they said if it was a minute later, that probably would have been a different story, and she most likely would not have survived,” he said, per Fox News.
'Not all calls turn out like this,' Marzan shared.
In a media conference covered by Live 5 News, Marzan said the toddler was possibly not in a car seat and had opened the door. The force of the vehicle going around the exit ramp caused her to fall out.
In the days since the accident, the toddler has had feeling restored to her arm and fingers. Doctors predict she will make a full recovery. The driver faces citations for a child restraint violation and not having a driverâs license, the South Carolina highway patrol confirmed.
For Marzan, heâs just thankful to know that this story ended the way it did.
âTo be there knowing you helped save somebody, that they can live another day, especially a child that young, it is a little different,” he explained, according to Fox News. “I’m just so thankful, you know, not all calls turn out like this or have a happy ending. This is probably one of the best things about wearing the badge.”
