Just in time: Detroit policemen save baby's life

DETROIT (WJBK) - Call it divine intervention, but a last-minute route change led two policemen to a mother in desperate need of help. 

Officer Douglas Nichols and Sgt. Charles Spruce were originally taking a different route to their location on Detroit's east side, but suddenly switched it up. They headed on Conant Street near East McNichols when they suddenly came across the mother who had pulled over, and was screaming for help.

A large crowd of people had gathered around her and her 4-month-old baby, Harmony, whom she had placed on the hood of a car.

"She was screaming hysterically that my child is not breathing," remembers Officer Nichols.

That's when Nichols and Spruce jumped into action.

"I immediately started CPR and let Sgt. Spruce know that we have to get this baby to the hospital," Nichols says. Spruce took the wheel, and says he never even looked down to see how fast he was going.

Spruce and Nichols got Harmony to Detroit Children's Hospital of Michigan. As they pulled up to the hospital, the officer and sergeant say they heard what they describe as a "beautiful noise."

"I knew when I got out of the car to the hospital, going into the hospital the baby gave me a big cry," Nichols says. "And I knew I had her, then, because she was loud."

"These are my heroes," Detroit Police Chief James Craig says of the men.

"It was scary for me because I kept saying to myself, I didn't want this baby to die on my watch," says Nichols.

It's not clear at this time what caused Harmony's medical emergency, but she's in the hospital recovering.