SPRINGFIELD, Ga. — On July 28, firefighter Tucker Woodcock was off duty and on a routine drive to pick up his 16-month-old daughter, Oakleigh, from day care when everything changed.

A 911 call popped up on his phone — a baby was in distress just blocks away on Arnsdorff Loop in Springfield. 

Woodcock, a firefighter with Effingham County Fire & Rescue, immediately called the dispatcher to check the severity of the call. When he heard the words "The baby is unconscious," he didn’t hesitate.

He made a quick U-turn and raced to the residence.

Inside the home, panic was already setting in. Lauren Rawson had just received a terrified phone call from her 10-year-old daughter: her baby sister, six-month-old Willow, wasn’t breathing — and their grandmother, who had been helping babysit, was unsure what to do, 

After telling them to call 911, Rawson left work, fearing the worst, according to WTOC11 in Savannah.

When Woodcock arrived, he found a woman — the baby’s grandmother — frantic.

“The baby was limp,” Woodcock told the Effingham Herald, “and the grandmother was hysterical, as anyone would be.”

He took Willow into his arms and quickly performed a gentle back thrust — a maneuver he’d practiced countless times in training but had never needed in a real-life emergency.

“I heard the bead hit the floor and the baby started crying,” he said. “Obviously, I knew she was breathing and would be all right.”

The culprit? A single plastic bead from a bracelet-making kit belonging to Willow’s older sister.

“No first responder likes a kid-in-distress call,” Woodcock said. “Those calls definitely get your blood pressure up.”

With the crisis over and baby Willow safe, Woodcock got back in his vehicle and continued on to pick up Oakleigh.

“After something like that, I gave her a big ’ole hug,” he said.