AITAH for wanting to correct my coworkers after they gave someone else credit for saving a baby?
I work at a homeless shelter, and a few days ago a 10-month-old baby drowned in a bathtub. It was late morning, and we were in our office working when we heard a shrill noise, we thought it was a dog and then we heard this insane, wailing and screaming, which I later learned was the “ mothers wail“. We started running, I ran back to get the Narcan because most of our emergencies are usually overdoses. The parents had the baby outside, screaming for help .When I got up the stairs, I saw my coworker slapping the baby on the back (keep in mind when a baby has drowned, you’re not supposed to focus on getting the water out. You’re not supposed to slap the babies back, it causes even more suffocation, you’re supposed to immediately start CPR ). He wasn’t breathing, he was purple and completely limp. Everyone was panicking. I snatched the baby, laid him down, told everyone to calm down, (actually I screamed “ EVERYBODY CALM DOWN !!) and started CPR. after a few minutes, the baby’s eyes started to flutter open, whenever I would stop compressions baby’s eyes would fall closed. I was so pissed because EMTs didn’t arrive for about 15 minutes, but I was able to get him breathing again before they got there. He ended up being okay, he had a lot of water inside of him, but thankfully no brain damage, and he’s back home now.
Here’s the issue: at work, people keep saying things like “you both saved the baby” or directly praising that coworker. She’s also been saying “we saved the baby,” which really bothers me because she didn’t perform CPR or do anything that actually got him breathing again. When I took that baby from her, he was dead. This coworker and I have had issues for the past few years, she has no problem taking credit for work that I’ve done. And we’re going to have a team meeting soon where we give shout outs, I know everyone is going to shout out her and myself, and I feel like I’m going to blow a gasket. Not only because she didn’t save him, but if this were to happen in the future, everyone needs to know that you can’t slap a baby back when the baby has drowned. I know it might sound petty since the baby is okay, but this was a really intense situation and I stepped in when no one else knew what to do. It’s frustrating to feel like that’s being watered down. If I didn’t go to work that day, I’m almost sure that Baby would’ve died.
I want to say something and correct it, but I don’t want to come off as dramatic or like I’m trying to take all the credit. I don’t even know how I’d bring it up. But am I the asshole for making this a bigger deal than it is? Is this a big deal? Please keep in mind that I did just return from maternity leave so this has been very traumatic for me and while everyone was calling me a “hero“ I did not feel like one I felt like crap for the past few days because I keep thinking what if I wasn’t able to save the baby, I keep thinking about my baby, I keep thinking about how long that poor baby was underneath the water and how he was gasping for air, but only getting water. It makes me so deeply sad that being angry about my coworker feels easier because it takes away my thoughts of the traumatic incident that occurred. Does that make sense? I’d much rather focus on being angry at my coworkers than thinking about that poor baby.
WIBTAH if I speak up and clarify what actually happened?
Posted Apr 28, 2026, 7:01 PM UTC · locked