This Texas bus driver is being called a ‘hero’ for saving a choking first-grader’s life

Raquel Radford Baker has worked for Dallas ISD’s Transportation Services for the past 17 years, and on Sept. 29, she reached official superhero status by saving a first grader’s life.

Radford Baker’s a bus driver, and the one thing she loves about transporting “her babies” as she calls them is that she’s transporting “future NFL players, NBA players, future doctors, nurses, attorneys, law enforcement, etc.,” she told KXAS, an NBC affiliate in Fort Worth, Texas.

And Radford Baker saved a future superstar’s life that Friday.  Radford Baker performed the Heimlich maneuver on seven-year-old Preston Bell who accidentally swallowed a quarter. 

“He can’t die in my arms, I have to save his life. God help me,” Radford Baker recalled thinking on the video. “I’m saying, ‘Baby, breathe. Baby, breathe. I got you. Breathe,’” she recalled telling Bell.

In a video that was shared on Good Morning America, you see Bell slumped over as he’s choking on a quarter. As he walked up to her to get help, Radford Baker says she thought he was just sick, but then she realized that he couldn’t breathe. She immediately grabbed him and hauled him off the bus. As she yelled for someone to call 911, she performed the Heimlich maneuver and saved that boy’s life. 

“I think she’s my hero because she saved my life,” Preston says. “She’s an angel.” 

In the video, the Bell family and Radford Baker were united. Preston’s mom got to thank her and tearfully gave her a hug. 

“I was able to look at her in her eyes and tell her how much I thanked her for saving my son’s life that day,” Bell’s mom tearfully said in the video.

Preston promises to never put quarters in his mouth again.