GREENWICH - The voice sounded like a distorted howl. The only thing police Dispatcher Geoffrey Hoffkins could hear was a woman screaming.

After several moments, he determined the woman's 1-year-old boy had fallen into the family swimming pool at 15 Laub Pond Road yesterday and was unconscious.

"I couldn't understand what she was saying at first," Hoffkins said.

But he knew he had little time; the child had turned blue.

"Calm down," he told the woman.

The Greenwich police officer dispatched two police cars and two ambulances to the house and coached the mother through resuscitating the child.

Hoffkins told the mother, Joan Lynch, to pinch the child's nose and to blow air into his lungs.

Three minutes later, he heard the baby cry, a good sign the boy was getting air.

"Should I let him breath on his own?" Lynch said.

"If he wants to. But if he turns blue, that's a sign he's not getting enough oxygen," Hoffkins told her. "Just keep helping him to breathe until the ambulance gets there."

When the baby vomited water, the mother became upset again.

"Oh, my God, he just vomited!" she said.

"OK, turn him on his side and clear his airway," Hoffkins replied.

Greenwich Emergency Medical Service brought the baby to Greenwich Hospital. He was reported in good condition last night and was kept overnight, said Capt. Michael DeAngelo of the Greenwich Police Uniformed Service Division.

Hoffkins, an emergency medical technician and Greenwich policeman for 23 years, said he went into a "zone," coaching the hysterical mother through resuscitating her child.

On a day-to-day basis, Hoffkins dispenses medical information and first aid tips to distraught callers who have cut their hand, fallen down stairs or are in cardiac arrest.

But a child victim is different, he said.

"It was my own worst nightmare, being a parent," said Hoffkins, a 44-year-old Banksville resident. "I was focused in solely on her and the child."

In the dispatch room of police headquarters, other officers had stopped to watch Hoffkins work.

"He was just amazing," Officer Carlos Franco said. "Everything he did was textbook, and it went perfectly."

DeAngelo, the supervising captain at the time of the incident, also rushed to the dispatch area to witness the call.

"He did a phenomenal job," DeAngelo said. "He's one of our best dispatchers."

Yesterday afternoon, a stream of officers congratulated Hoffkins on the telephone rescue. Hoffkins said he was happy things worked out, but credited Lynch for paying attention and executing his commands.

"She did all the work," he said. "She calmed down because she had something to do and didn't have to wait for us to arrive. She did everything I would have done if I had walked in and discovered the child."

Police said they will make a report on the incident available today, DeAngelo said.

DeAngelo said the incident underlines the importance of people learning CPR and emergency resuscitation techniques, especially if they own a pool or live near the water.

"An incident like this with a child can happen in a bathtub," he said. "You never know when you're going to need it."