Youman honored by Sheriff's Dept. for saving baby's life

Saber Youman, a 2008 Fallbrook High School graduate and a current Camp Pendleton Marine, was honored by the Sheriff’s Department last month for a life-saving action earlier this year.

Youman was presented with his honor Nov. 19 at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. He was recommended for the award by Fallbrook substation Sergeant Patrick Yates.

“It is the opinion of the three responding deputies that had Marine Saber Ben Youman not been present and not intervened, the results would have been catastrophic,” Yates stated.

The three Fallbrook substation deputies responded to a call regarding a one-year-old baby who was not breathing. They arrived at a car wash at South Main Avenue and Ammunition Road shortly before 6 p.m. on April 28. When they arrived, they found that Youman had begun the resuscitation process.

Youman, a member of Camp Pendleton’s 4th Light Armored Amphibious Vehicle Battalion, was having his car washed when the baby girl stopped breathing. He correctly evaluated the baby’s condition and initiated the proper life-saving techniques needed for the baby to restore breathing. A temporary setback occurred when the baby began choking, but Youman rolled the baby over, cleared her airway of debris, and once again restored her breathing.

“It was clear to the deputies present that had it not been for the quick evaluation and institution of the proper life-saving procedures, the small baby would have suffered irreversible brain damage or death as a result of a critical lack of oxygen,” Yates stated.