Family thanks police officer 23 years after he saved little girl’s life

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    PARKER, Co (KCNC) — Natalie Eckhoff doesn’t remember the incident 23 years ago, but she’ll be forever grateful for Parker Police Sgt. Joe Cummings.

“From the stories that my mother tells me and other stories that I hear it was a very unique situation and handled very well,” Natalie said.

Back in 1998, Natalie had a seizure. Her mother, Diane, called 911 and says then-Officer Cummings arrived just in time.

“I said ‘She’s turning blue, she’s turning blue!’ so that’s when my son opened the door and Officer Joe and his partner came running in and they grabbed Natalie and got her right before she stopped breathing,” Diane said.Cummings credits his training at the department for preparing him to deal with life or death calls.

“Our department provides a lot of training, a lot of quality training and we’re trained well and as first responders, we’re going to be first there and we just act,” Cummings said. “There’s a lot of us that put on the same badge and we all do the same thing.”

Diane had held onto Cummings’ business card all these years and wanted to find him and thank him before his upcoming retirement.

“You go to these calls and you never know what the outcome is,” Cummings said. “A lot of times you don’t see people and you always wonder. Especially in today’s day and age where law enforcement gets such a negative rep it’s nice to see that as I’m coming to the end that, yeah, maybe I did make a little bit of a difference.”

Natalie is now pursuing a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. She never had another seizure.

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