Longmont first responders speak about the night they found Michelle Wilkins

“I started yelling,” Longmont police Officer Bill Sawyer told Denver station KDVR.

Nothing could have prepared Sawyer and his colleagues for this.

“Michelle yelled back very faint and it was muffled ‘help me, help me,'” Sawyer said.

The first responders were desperately searching for the source of that sound.

“She said ‘I’m down here,’ and I said, ‘Are you behind the closed door?’ and she said ‘Yes,'” he said.

Officer Bill Sawyer and his partner, Phil Piotrowski responded to that call Wednesday night.

Six minutes later, they were at this home in Longmont where they found Michelle Wilkins bleeding and dying.

Police say Daynel Lane attacked Wilkins with a knife, removing the baby girl from her stomach.

“When I walked in, I looked at her for a short moment and I had to walk out for a second because my head wasn’t able to wrap around it,” Piotrowski said.

“She immediately tried to hold my hand. She was covered from head to toe in blood, and so I held her hand and went through where her injuries were and stuff like that and trying to figure out what we had,” Sawyer said.

These are two of the police, paramedics and staff of Longmont United who saved her life.

“She’s alive why, because of first responders. Professional first responders execute perfectly,” said Chris Wilkins, Michelle Wilkins’ uncle.

But like true heroes, those first responders attribute her strength, more than theirs.

“She is one of strongest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting,” Piotrowski said.

Her family says the strength she’s found is her determination to live.

“Michelle is improving minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour,” said Chris Wilkins.

“She saved her own life,” Piotrowski said.

First responders will try to forget the horrific scene they encountered in this home.

“You can’t get some of the stuff out of your head,” Piotrowski said.

But they will never forget Michelle Wilkins.

“She’s a survivor. That was all her for sure,” Sawyer said.