James Beck
is still the hero

By Diane Prokop
Times Staff Writer

It was just after midnight on Saturday, Dec. 22, when James Beck left Pat’s Shamrock Sports Bar on Cottman Avenue.
Beck, 26, was walking south on Frankford Avenue when he heard 20-year-old Diane Gonzales screaming into the phone at a booth outside the Dollar King store at Frankford Avenue and Friendship Street. At first, Beck, who was speaking on his cell phone with a friend, thought the excitement was about a problem with a boyfriend. But then he heard the young woman say something about her baby not breathing.
Gonzales had checked on her 4-month-old son, Francis Colon, and realized that he wasn’t breathing. She had no phone service at home, so the distraught mother picked up the baby and hurried to the corner public phone to call for help.
The woman had been looking down Friendship Street, toward her home a few doors from the corner, when she turned toward Beck. He saw the baby in Gonzales’ arms, bundled in a fleece outfit. The mother wasn’t wearing a coat; Beck couldn’t tell if she was wearing shoes.
He shut his cell phone and took the phone from the upset woman, telling the 911 dispatcher their location and that he had CPR training.
The dispatcher told Beck to have the mother hold the baby upright and to check the child’s airway.
"The mom was getting me upset. She wasn’t faking it, kind of losing her mind. I said, ‘Listen you have to do this,’" Beck said.
When the dispatcher told him to give rescue breaths, his training came back to him. Beck covered the baby’s mouth and nose with his mouth, being mindful not to blow too forcefully into the baby’s lungs.
"By the fourth breath, the baby gave a little gasp, then Captain (Frank) Bachmayer and the fire department were there," Beck said, referring to the commander of the 15th Police District. "A fireman took the baby out of my arms."
Little Francis was transported to Frankford Hospital’s Torresdale Campus. A fireman called Beck an hour after the baby was whisked away for treatment to thank him for his efforts.
But the prospect of a happy ending for the young mother and her baby was not to be. The fireman called Beck again later that Saturday morning to tell him that the baby had passed away.
"I cried in front of my friend," said Beck, a roofer apprentice. "My friend said that I gave it enough time to make it to the hospital. I was kind of wishing I never walked down Frankford Avenue."
An autopsy had been scheduled, but the official cause of death could not be ascertained by the Times as it went to press last weekend.
Despite the sad outcome, Diane Gonzales remains very thankful that Beck was there to help.
"He tried to help me that night when it happened . . . he noticed that I was hysterical with the baby in my hands . . . he was giving my son CPR, he was trying to help my son get a little bit of air," Gonzales said by phone last week. "I don’t know what would have happened. I’m glad he was there at the right time."
Bachmayer, the 15th district commander, said the death of little Francis does not diminish Beck’s heroic efforts to save him. In fact, he intends to recommend Beck for a departmental commendation.
"He did a fantastic job," Bachmayer said. ••
Reporter Diane Prokop can be reached at 215-354-3036 or dprokop@phillynews.com