PARENTS THANK THEIR ANGELS MOM'S GLANCE, PHYSICAL THERAPIST, FIREFIGHTERS SAVE BABY.

Byline: Amy Raisin Staff Writer

SAUGUS - There are so many ``what ifs.'' What if Jennifer Jenkins hadn't looked at her 3-week-old son in the back seat? What if the off-duty firefighter hadn't stopped for coffee?

There is only one certainty for Jenkins and her husband: They would have lost their baby two weeks ago without the backward glance and the help of those they call their guardian angels.

``I don't know what made me look in the back seat, but when I did I saw that Joshua's feet looked a weird color,'' said the Canyon Country mother of two. ``I pulled over, and he wasn't breathing. I just grabbed him and started screaming, running down the street.''

Her worst nightmare unfolded just after 8 a.m. July 11 near Seco Canyon Road and Copper Hill Drive, where an off-duty firefighter heard her screams and came out of a coffee shop to her aid.

In another stroke of good fortune, Facey Medical Group had just opened its new Saugus clinic, where a physical therapist, Laura Bouziane, also heard Jenkins screaming that morning and rushed to the baby.

Those credited with saving the baby's life were honored at the Facey clinic Wednesday for their skill and grace under extreme pressure.

``You just had to take one look at him to know something was horribly wrong,'' Bouziane said. ``He was so tiny. My maternal instincts (and) my clinical training just took over. What a devastating loss that would be for any parent.''

Bouziane administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation until the baby was taken away in an ambulance, but she never heard the baby's cry of life.

Paramedic Kelly Lynn and Capt. Bill Apodaca of Los Angeles County Fire Station 111, also honored Wednesday, responded to the 911 call and found a sight that moved them as emergency workers and as fathers.

``He was very still, very blue, very lifeless,'' Lynn said. ``We were able to establish an airway and got a minimal sign of life before the ambulance left. Following the rescue I had to call my kids. I had to hear their voices.''

After 12 days watching over their baby in intensive care at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, John Jenkins and his wife took their younger son - Joshua's brother, Jacob, is 2 - home, where he is monitored with a breathing machine as a precaution.

``The doctors said it was reflux - that some mucus collected in his chest and throat,'' Jennifer Jenkins said, tearfully posing for pictures with her family and the people who helped save her son. ``When I was running for help, I thought he was dead.

``That was the worst. But I keep thinking: Why did I look back there? Why were they all there at that time? I truly believe that everything was meant to be.''

Her husband, weeping openly in gratitude to those who saved Joshua, repeatedly thanked the audience of about 40 people Wednesday at Facey.

``I can't really express it,'' he later said. ``You can say thank you, but you can't (make them) understand. Because of them, I will have my son for the rest of my life.''

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Alicia Figueroa, left, watches John and Jennifer Jenkins - holding their sons Jacob, 2, and baby Joshua - show the infant Wednesday to people who helped save his life: Kelly Lynn, center, and Bill Apodaca, firefighters, and Laura Bouziane, a physical therapist.

(2 -- color) Laura Bouziane holds 5-week-old Joshua Jenkins on Wednesday. She gave him CPR when his mom, right, screamed for help July 11.

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer