A Dallas Veterans Affairs Police officer recently came to the aid of a toddler in respiratory distress at an area gas station.

The VA reports that Corporal Lee Higginbotham stopped at a QuikTrip to fill his vehicle's tank “when a crowd of panicked bystanders called out for help.”

Higginbotham went to their aid and found a “small child around two years old, struggling to breathe and growing visibly weaker by the second.”

Police say that Higginbotham recognized the child was choking and performed the Heimlich maneuver, “working quickly and carefully until a foreign object was expelled from the child’s airway.” With the object gone the boy’s breathing returned.

“I just did what anyone in my position would hope to do,” Corporal Higginbotham said. “I’m grateful I was in the right place at the right time and able to help.”

Dallas Fire-Rescue paramedics arrived on scene, checked the child, and let him and his family go home.

Dallas VA Police Chief Michael Dvorak praised Higginbotham’s actions. “His quick thinking and compassion truly made all the difference. We’re proud to have officers like him protecting not just our VA campus and the Veterans that we serve, but the whole community,” Dvorak said.