OPINION: Oklahoma family a bright light in a horrific tragedy
The thought of an infant wearing only a diaper and floating face up in the East River under the Brooklyn Bridge will stay in the minds of New Yorkers for a long time to come. But that horrific image will be drowned out by the actions of a heroic doctor and his family visiting from Oklahoma.
The Campbells, their two sons and a niece, had just returned from a ferry trip to the Statue of Liberty when Diana Campbell told her husband Monte, a doctor, that she saw a baby floating in the river. At first the Campbells thought it was a doll or some kind of drill.
When he realized it was no drill, he first called 9-1-1, then he handed his phone to his wife and jumped into the water and retrieved the baby. While his family flagged down a patrol car, Dr. Campbell desperately tried to revive the baby applying CPR until an ambulance arrived and rushed the child to New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Lower Manhattan, where he was pronounced dead.
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.