When Bethel Police Department Detective Daniela Cordoba got the call in mid-January, she said she didn’t think twice.
“It actually went out to the fire department, but I heard the call, and I happened to be getting gas around the corner,” Cordoba remembered.
An 11-month-old baby boy in Bethel was choking and had gone unresponsive. Cordoba was there quickly.
“And when I got there, I just went into full ‘What [do] I know how to do?’” Cordoba said. “I didn't even think about it.”
Cordoba said she performed back blows, compressions, and a finger sweep on the child. Soon, color returned to his face and he began to cry.
“That's when the fire department arrived, and I followed them to the hospital,” Cordoba recalled. “And [the mother] had the younger daughter with her, and mom was just so obviously very stressed out with the situation, so I was kind of helping play with the little girl while mom's talking to doctors.”
The baby was okay. A few months later, he cried and babbled from the laps of his parents from the back of the Bethel City Council chambers, where Detective Cordoba was honored with a Life Saving award as part of a special meeting of the City Council on April 15. Members of the police and fire departments spilled into the room.
Bethel Public Safety Director James Harris addressed the council before presenting Detective Cordoba with a medal.
“Today, we celebrate Officer Cordoba, not just for her swift response and heroic actions, but also for her embodying the values we cherish in our community — compassion, courage, dedication to service,” Harris said.
Cordoba started on Bethel’s police force this past September. She splits her time between Bethel and the Los Angeles Police Department in California in a two weeks on, two weeks off rotation.
She said it means a lot to be recognized for a job that’s often thankless.
“Honestly, it's very emotional,” Cordoba said. “I wasn't expecting it, and I wasn't expecting all of the fire department to show up and all of my co-workers to show up, because some of them came in early from their shift to be here. I didn't know the baby was going to be here, so, like that was also very pretty emotional to see him and seeing the mom, like, calm in a different sense.”
Harris said the award — which he said is one of the highest that can be given to a police officer — isn’t just about Cordoba’s lifesaving action. It’s also about her compassion for the family. She stayed with them for over an hour until a local religious leader arrived to support the family.
An award similar to its kind was last bestowed to a BPD officer five years ago, in 2020.
