"In the name of Jesus let him breathe, let him breathe Lord, let him breathe."
Those were the words of a woman who began praying after a bystander performed CPR on a baby boy who was just pulled out from a truck that flipped over in floodwaters on Saturday in Canton, Texas, WFAA-TV reported.
Tom Mitchell, the man who performed the CPR, said he initially feared that the baby might not make it. "No reaction, nothing is happening," he told the TV news outlet.
But right after Virginia Howard said her prayers, he felt a response from the child.
"Dear Jesus, please let this baby breathe. Well, the first prayer she said I felt a response in that child," he said.
"We got one!" rescuers shouted as the baby began to breathe again.
Mitchell and the other Good Samaritans who happened to be at the scene were able to resuscitate the baby and another toddler also trapped inside the overturned vehicle.
Mitchell later told Howard: "When you came over and started praying - at that moment it gave me strength to continue and that infant responded right then."
Tornadoes had just devastated the area early Saturday, leaving at least four people dead and more than 50 injured.
Mitchell told WFAA that he was just out driving around to see if he could offer help to anybody in distress.
He then came upon a terrifying scene: a pickup truck flipped over in rushing floodwaters near Myrtle Springs, Texas. Inside was Phillip Ocheltree, his infant son Marshal, and his toddler daughter Addyson, the Weather Channel reported.
"Life comes at you in a blink of an eye," Ocheltree later wrote on Facebook. "Last night leaving our home trying to get away from what was yet to come we hydroplaned off the highway."
Mitchell saw a group of people desperately trying to get the family out of the vehicle, but the floodwaters were moving so fast that they couldn't even open the doors.
Knowing that he lacked the strength to join the rescuers, he just began filming the scene on his cell phone.
When the rescuers were finally able to extricate baby Marshal, who appeared limp, white and going bluish grey, Mitchell put the phone in his pocket and began CPR.
The woman who prayed for baby Marshall also kept praying when the rescuers rescued his sister Addyson. Her voice was recorded on Mitchell's cell phone video footage.
Ocheltee later gave an update on his children's condition on Facebook, saying Marshall is in "excellent condition" while Addyson is "stable and breathing more and more on her own."
Ocheltree took time to thank their rescuers, calling them a blessing.
"I can't thank you all enough who came into the water and saved my children," he wrote.
He thanked God in a Facebook update: "All scans and tests say it looks promising, we seriously cannot thank all of the friends, people family everyone that has been with us thank you all for your support and prayers the man upstairs is hearing them loud and clear."
