03-06-2025
Mary Hagen honored with Key to the City for life-saving efforts on an infant
Jun. 2—A person could learn CPR and go their entire life without using it, but in those rare situations where it's required it's life-impacting.
During its meeting Monday night, the Austin City Council honored Mary Hagen for just that, when she used her CPR training to save an infant who wasn't breathing just under a month ago. The deed also invited a presentation of the Key to City by Mayor Steve King.
Hagen and her family were at her grandson's youth flag football game three weeks ago when they were alerted by a mother's distressed cries that her one-year-old was in distress.
Hagen told the board and those in attendance during the meeting that the baby was not breathing nor could a pulse be found.
"I performed CPR and the first responders showed up shortly after," Hagen said, recounting that first responders were able to discover a pulse after arriving.
"Thankfully the baby was in mom's arms by the time the ambulance got there," Hagen continued.
Hagen, who used to teach CPR and who has known it for 50 years, said after the meeting that the entire incident happened very quickly.
It was just a moment of falling back on what she knew.
"You just go and do your thing and until it's done and you know that they are up in the ambulance ... then you think, 'oh my gosh. What just happened?'" Hagen said. "You get in the moment and do what you've been trained to do."
Throughout all the years that Hagen has taught CPR, Hagen said she has used parts of the CPR process, however, this is the first time she's used it on an infant.
Hagen added that she was able to meet with the mother not long after at another game and was happy to see the child recovering.
"It was nice to see her and it was nice to see the baby there," Hagen said. "Hopefully he's still doing fine."
