Two Fort Worth police officers are being hailed as heroes after they helped save a baby pinned beneath a car following a rollover crash off Interstate 30 last week.

Sgt. Ryan Nichols and Officer Edwin Bounds had just started their shift on Oct. 23 when they saw the crash happen.

“It actually wasn’t a call. We were just driving down the highway and the accident happened directly in front of me,” Bounds said. “We just happened to be, we just happened to be there at the time.”

The baby and her mother had been ejected from the vehicle. The child was trapped underneath her mother’s car.

“The odds were not in our favor,” Nichols said.

Working alongside bystanders, the officers helped lift the car and pulled the infant out. Nichols said he and Bounds immediately began life-saving measures.

“We began to work, just praying on the inside that the Lord was just gonna work the problem for us,” he said. “We all came together, everybody was pitching in the hand, and slowly but surely she came (back), too.”

Bounds said his instincts as both a father and an officer took over.

“My first thought was to reach into her mouth and just pull out any kind of grass or dirt or anything that could get lodged in her airway to make sure that she can breathe,” he said.

Both men continued CPR as they urged the baby to keep fighting. You can hear one officer call the child “baby girl” and “mommas”.

“I probably called her anything that I would call my own daughters,” Bounds said. Moments later, the baby’s cry filled the air. “Just hearing that first little cry was the sweetest sound I could hear,” he said.

The rescue was captured on body camera video that has since been viewed by millions online. Watching it again, the officers admit the moment remains difficult to process.

“It’s just still hard to watch today,” Bounds said. “We go through a lot of training, but nothing can prepare you mentally seeing a baby in that condition. It was hard at the time and hard today.”

Nichols said the sound of the baby breathing brought immense relief.

“The difference when she starts to breathe and crying, it was just the greatest sigh of relief,” Nichols said.

Chief Eddie Garcia described the officers’ efforts as using “dad strength.” Both men, who have three daughters of their own, said that while rescues like this are part of the job, this one hit close to home.

“We’re not perfect, we’re a work in progress and we need grace as much as anybody else,” Nichols said.

According to Fort Worth PD, the child remains hospitalized but is expected to make a full recovery.