Two Berkeley police officers helped save the life of an infant who stopped breathing earlier this month, and the boy is now in stable condition at a local hospital, authorities said this week.

On July 8, police were called to a home in the 2100 block of Fifth Street for a child in distress, a 4-month-old boy who was unresponsive, said Sgt. Andrew Frankel, Berkeley Police spokesman.

When officers got to the home, no one would answer the front door, which was locked. So Officer Ken Tu jumped the back fence to get into the house through the rear, Frankel said.

Officers found the child’s grandmother and she led them to the boy’s bedside. They sent her to unlock the front door so the Berkeley Fire Department could get inside once they arrived.

The baby wasn’t breathing, so Tu began to perform CPR.

A short time later, to relieve Tu, Officer Chris Flores took over chest compressions, and the baby began taking short, inconsistent breaths but was still unresponsive. Flores then started rescue breathing — administering breaths in between chest compressions.

“They were working together as a team to try and save this infant’s life,” Frankel said this week.

A Berkeley Fire Department paramedic soon arrived and took over. BFD then took the boy to Children’s Hospital Oakland for care.

Frankel said authorities do not know what the child’s longterm prognosis is, but that the officers’ quick response gave him his “best shot at survival.”

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Frankel said this week, as of Monday, that the boy is still in the hospital in stable condition.

No further information was immediately available.

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