PLANO, Texas — A 17-year veteran of the Plano Police Department is being praised after he kept a child from choking to death last month.
On July 5, Officer Coy Clements was dispatched to a medical call off Tallahassee Drive. When he got there, his body camera caught a child, 1-year-old Ariana Yousif, facing death.
According to her family, Ariana had swallowed a marble and wasn’t breathing. In the video, you see Clements enter the Yousif home. “I headed that way as quickly as I could,” Clements said. “I went through the hallway and could see straight into the living room where the family was.”
A woman can then be seen holding Ariana and is crying. Clements takes Ariana from the woman and begins hitting her lower back several times. “I grabbed her, looked at her face, and she was clearly not responsive,” Clements said. “I turned her back over and just started hitting her on the lower part of her back.”
After a few strikes to Ariana’s back, you begin to hear her cry. Clements called it a sign of relief. “Kind of the best moment was when she started screaming,” Clements said. “It was obvious at that point that she was breathing.”
But the marble was still in Ariana’s throat, though dislodged enough where she could breathe. It was finally removed at a nearby hospital, according to her family. Clements even paid a visit. “At that moment, immediately I knew that we were going to be forever linked,” Clements said. “I got a huge hug, and you know out here that’s the most real hug I ever got.”
According to Clements, it was the first time he had saved a child’s life. Ariana’s father, Moss Yousif, said he couldn’t be more thankful. “When I watched the body camera, I couldn’t handle it because I could see she was basically dead,” Yousif said.
“I feel like you know, God gave us a second chance to be with Ariana. It was not her time, and we are so thankful she’s here with us.”
Yousif and his family also experienced a first themselves; gaining a friend in blue for life. “Officer Clements is a hero and that’s all I can say,” Yousif said.