‘It’s a miracle’: Officer describes saving toddler who fell out of moving car

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC/Gray News) - A South Carolina police officer’s quick thinking is being credited for helping save the life of a 2-year-old girl who fell out of a moving vehicle onto the interstate.

Pfc. Jason Marzan, a four-year veteran with North Charleston Police, was at Trident Medical Center at about 10 a.m. last Tuesday when he learned a child had been injured after she fell out of a moving vehicle on Interstate 26, WCSC reports.

Marzan arrived at the scene and saw the toddler lying in the roadway. He said a soldier from Shaw Air Force Base was in a vehicle behind the vehicle from which the toddler fell and was able to position their car to prevent any other vehicle from hitting the child in the roadway.

“My first thought is to make sure nothing else happens [to the child],” Marzan told reporters Monday. “It just all kind of kicks in, you know. I have 21 years in the Army, retired. So, it just kind of all comes to you, just quick reaction to it. Do what’s first, do what’s best.”

Marzan said he saw that the toddler’s right arm had been severed just above the elbow, and he applied a tourniquet to control the bleeding. Charleston County EMS arrived within minutes, and Marzan was able to recover the severed arm. EMS took the child to an area hospital for treatment.

“Speaking with the surgeon and the family at the hospital, they said if it was a minute later, that probably would have been tragic,” Marzan said.

Instead, doctors at the Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital at the Medical University of South Carolina were able to surgically reattach the toddler’s arm.

“And as of today, today was the third time I spoke with the family on the phone. She has a cast on her arm, and she is starting to get sensation already back in her fingers,” Marzan said.

Marzan said he has visited the hospital a couple of times since the incident, including the morning after.

“When I went into the room and the surgeon told me that they reattached the arm and everything is going great was better yet,” he said. “It’s just a miracle that they can do that. So, the hospital staff at Shawn Jenkins, as well, did an amazing job. I mean, here it is ... almost six days, and she’s already starting to get the feeling back in her fingers and arm already. It’s just amazing.”

Marzan, who has six children himself, said he has only been a police officer for five years, having spent one year as an officer in the state of New York before coming to North Charleston.

“This is probably one of the best things about wearing the badge, and just, you know, not every call, you go through the happy ending. This one here is a little different,” he said. “You know, this makes me want to go another 20 years, if it ends up like this.”

Marzan said everyone has been “very ive” since the incident and he felt he just did his job for the day.

“To be there knowing you helped save somebody, that they can live another day, especially a child that young, it is a little different,” he said.

North Charleston Police did not identify the child or the driver of the vehicle involved.

The South Carolina Highway Patrol, which is investigating the incident, confirmed the driver as 36-year-old Ebone’e Myers. She faces two citations, one for a child restraint violation and another for not having a driver’s license.

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