Novato man honored for saving infant's life with CPR
One day after finishing CPR training at work, Frank Antonio Sr. heard panicked banging on the door of his Novato home at 1:30 in the morning. It was a neighbor with a lifeless baby boy in her arms.
"I had no idea that the CPR training would come in handy so soon," Antonio said, "but it was like second nature."
Antonio, 68, got the baby's heartbeat going again just before police and medical units pulled up. Three months later, the young boy has just celebrated his first birthday and the family can't stop saying thanks.
Last week, Antonio was honored by his employer, Waste Management, with what it calls a Lifechanger ring, given to employees who go above and beyond the call of duty. Antonio, who operates heavy equipment at the Redwood Landfill north of Novato, was called into the office by radio and walked into a celebration in his honor.
"My first thought was that somebody was getting laid off, and since I'm the oldest I thought it was me," he said.
Instead, Antonio received a hug from his wife, Linda, and handshakes from management and co-workers. He said the ring is the size of a Super Bowl ring. Waste Management has only given out six in the company's history and regards it as the highest honor for an employee.
"Frank is a true life-changer," said Jessica Jones, district manager at the landfill. "Frank demonstrated a calm under pressure that resulted in a child's life being saved. We are honored to work side by side with him."
Antonio remembers when heheard the banging on his door. He thought his wife had gone outside and locked herself out. Four people were there, all screaming, as young Marquese Straiten was turning purple, the result of a seizure.
"He wasn't breathing. I grabbed him and held him in one hand. I started CPR on his back and hollered at them to call 911," he said. "I kept it up and my training just kicked in. It seemed like about 2 or 3 minutes and then he started to come back."
"I've never seen him that calm," Linda Antonio said of her husband. "People were screaming but he made everybody calm."
Maxine Straiten, the boy's grandmother, said she had CPR training but couldn't get herself to perform it on her own grandson. She and the baby's mother, her daughter Tiffany Straiten, had turned to Antonio for help in a similar middle-of-the-night incident about a month earlier. But after the November emergency, hospital personnel told the Straitens that Marquese's brain was shutting down and he almost didn't survive.
"Thankful is not the word," Maxine Straiten said. "He saved my grandson's life, and that means the world to me."
Frank Antonio saw the boy a few days ago and was reassured that he is doing fine with new anti-seizure medication.
"My neighbor told me I did good," he said. "This is the first time in my life I've done something like this. It's been a life-changing experience."