{"id":7826,"date":"2025-08-05T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7826"},"modified":"2025-08-05T14:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T14:30:00","slug":"dallas-va-police-officer-saves-childs-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7826","title":{"rendered":"Dallas VA police officer saves child\u2019s life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"tni-source-date\"><strong>Originally published:<\/strong> 2025-08-05T14:30:00+00:00. Historical source article: benefits, rules, amounts and deadlines may have changed. Check the official source for current information.<\/p>\n<p>What started as a routine stop for gas suddenly turned into a life-or-death situation for Corporal Lee Higginbotham of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/north-texas-health-care\/locations\/dallas-va-medical-center\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Dallas VA<\/a> Police Department.<\/p>\n<p>Higginbotham was refueling his patrol vehicle at a QuikTrip, a local gas station, when a crowd of panicked bystanders called out for help. In the middle of the group was a small child around 2 years old, struggling to breathe and growing visibly weaker by the second.<\/p>\n<p>Relying on his training, Higginbotham stepped in immediately. He recognized that the child was choking and performed the Heimlich maneuver, working quickly and carefully until a foreign object was expelled from the child\u2019s airway. Relief swept through the crowd as the boy\u2019s breathing returned, and the color began to come back to his face.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Right place, right time<\/h2>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/IMG_1156_r1-scaled.jpg\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Corporal Lee Higginbotham of the Dallas VA Police Department.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cI just did what anyone in my position would hope to do,\u201d Corporal Higginbotham said. \u201cI\u2019m grateful I was in the right place at the right time and able to help.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dallas Fire-Rescue paramedics arrived moments later, checked the child thoroughly and made sure he was safe to go home. Higginbotham stayed on scene until everyone was sure the child was okay.<\/p>\n<p>Dallas <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/?s=VA+Police+\">VA Police<\/a> Chief Michael Dvorak praised Higginbotham\u2019s actions: \u201cHis quick thinking and compassion truly made all the difference. We\u2019re proud to have officers like him protecting not just our VA campus and the Veterans that we serve, but the whole community.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"tni-attribution\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/141470\/dallas-va-police-officer-saves-childs-life\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs<\/a>. Its Veterans is an independent publication and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Dallas VA police officer at a routine refueling stop saved a child\u2019s life by performing the Heimlich maneuver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-veterans-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Dallas VA police officer saves child\u2019s life - Its Veterans<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Dallas VA police officer at a routine refueling stop saved a child\u2019s life by performing the Heimlich maneuver.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7826\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dallas VA police officer saves child\u2019s life - 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