Recording Artist Recognized For Saving Child On LI Highway: Reports

PATCHOGUE, NY — A Good Samaritan is being recognized for saving a 2-year-old and her mother, after he saw the toddler wandering on a busy Sunrise Highway service road.

Recording artist Jeff Watkins, who goes by the stage name "Voice Watkins," was driving from his Bohemia studio to Patchogue with his brother at about 12:40 a.m. on Sunday when he saw the child, News 12 reported.

The two saw the child on the road and were in disbelief, he told News12. They stopped the car and asked the girl if she was alright.

The toddler then told the men she saw lost.

Suffolk County Police said that the child's mother, Anna Heinecker, 32, was driving a 2015 Scion on the eastbound Sunrise Highway Service Road with her toddler in the vehicle when she began to feel sick.

She pulled over on Meadow Wood Drive near Rolling Hill Drive and unbuckled the child from her car seat, police said. Heinecker subsequently lost consciousness and her daughter exited the vehicle, police said.

Watkins and his brother drove with the child to a nearby Wendy's, where they called police.

Responding officers located Heinecker in her vehicle and revived her with Narcan, police said. Heinecker was taken to Long Island Community Hospital in Patchogue where she was treated and released into police custody, police said.

The child was taken to Stony Brook University Hospital for evaluation and Child Protective Services was notified, police said.