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9-year-old boy saves baby brother with epic catch

Posted at 6:21 PM, Nov 18, 2016
and last updated 2016-11-18 18:21:11-05
A 9-year-old boy from Florida became a viral sensation this week after he expertly caught his baby brother who had rolled off a changing table -- a moment that was captured on the family's home camera.

A 9-year-old boy from Florida became a viral sensation this week after he expertly caught his baby brother who had rolled off a changing table — a moment that was captured on the family’s home camera.

A 9-year-old boy from Florida became a viral sensation this week after he expertly caught his baby brother who had rolled off a changing table — a moment that was captured on the family’s home camera.

Pint-sized hero, Joseph Levy, appeared on CNN’s New Day program Friday, along with his Mom, Tila, to talk about his epic catch. It happened when his Mom turned away for a second to talk to one of her other kids, only to find for 11-month-old Eitan was wriggling his way off the changing table.

“I just turned for a second, and I saw him rolling and I ran,” he explained.

“I really didn’t know how I ran that fast because I’m never actually able to run that fast,” Joseph confessed.

Of the moment after he caught the baby in his arms, he said: “I was really, really nervous.”

“I didn’t know what had happened,” he added. “And then I started crying.”

For Joseph’s Mom, Tila, everything also happened in a split second.

“The first thing I did was I fell to the floor, and I hugged him, and the baby was fine. He never hit the ground,” she said, still marveling.

“But I really needed an explanation. I wasn’t really sure exactly how everything occurred. I just kept saying to Joseph, ‘You saved him! You saved him. You’re a superhero. Thank you so much.’ And then as soon as everybody calmed down, the first thing we did was go back to the cameras,” she said. “It’s an app on my phone and we just watched the whole thing happen over and over again. It was miraculous.”

While CNN’s John Berman notes that a wriggling baby falling from a changing table is a situation that “has happened to roughly 100% of parents,” Levy explained that she released the footage because she hopes the video will bring “awareness” to other moms and dads.

“We decided that we wanted to help other people to make sure that whoever doesn’t have a Joseph around can, you know, just be more vigilant,” she said.

As for Joseph, he wonders if his heroism will score him some points with his beloved baby brother in the future.

“If he tells on me for something I did, I would tell him I saved his life,” he said, giggling.