On Monday, I spent time with cops in Baltimore's Eastern District as they handed out boxes filled with food and toys to those less fortunate. Yesterday, it was the firefighter's turn. I went out with a group from Engine Co. 29 and Medic 17 to a home on Oswego Avenue in Park Heights. At the far lest is Firefighter Michael Hineline. Next to him is Lt. Tom Tosh. Battalion Chief Mark Ruff is in the back with the white hat. Lachuna Sheppard is in the foreground on the right.

It was there three weeks ago that some of these same firefighters responded to frantic call for help from Lachuna Sheppard. Her 22-month-old son, Jashon Stephens, had stopped breathing. The firefighters revived him and got him to Sinai, and then later to Johns Hopkins Hospital where he remains in intensive care. Joshon was born with a heart defect, has one lung -- which collapsed -- and his stomach is tied. He has spent more time at Hopkins than at home.

His first year was the hardest, his mother told me, with seven surgeries. But then, Jashon made it at home for six months without needing emergency care. It took his mother, her sister, her brother and their parents, in addition to a nurse working 19 hours a day, to give Jashon proper care. All was going well until that one night three weeks ago. Sheppard told me that Jashon had been playing on the floor, suddenly grew tired and toppled over. His face was blue.

The firefighters and paramedics rushed to help Jashon, get him oxygen and get him to the hospital. Lt. Tom Tosh decided later to adopt the family; he told me he liked the way Sheppard cared for her son, that she knew the medical procedures and made it easy for his paramedics to administer proper care.

Today's column in the print edition gives more details. Here are some more photos: