Here is a runner-up in our EMS Week 2015 essay contest. This year’s theme was EMS STRONG, and we asked you to share stories of when a pediatric patient made you feel like a superhero. Check out the other winners here.
By Debbie Tipton
My partner (who I have worked with 24 years, and he is my husband) and I were dispatched to a residence. Upon entry he was directed to the bathroom; I was a few steps behind as I had stopped to grab an OB kit.
When I met him he was holding a very small, blue, dripping wet newborn in one hand and the placenta in the other. He had retrieved the newborn from the toilet, covered with toilet paper.
We immediately dropped to the ground and began warming, suctioning, administering ALS care. The newborn began to cry.
The newborn was extremely cold. My partner placed the infant to his chest, swaddled, then I wrapped him and the infant in additional blankets to hold in his body heat. It was summer and hot outside; he never complained. During the ride to the ED, the newborn responded well to ALS procedures. The infant went into the care of ED as a Doe baby as it was not wanted.
Yes we saved a newborn, but we were unable to follow up with the case until one day a friend said let me show you your baby; I was speechless. Seems on that day not only did we respond to a call, but we followed a plan, God’s plan. The newborn we resuscitated was adopted by a friend of ours who had desperately tried to have children. And we are the overly-proud godparents watching this miracle grow up.
That indeed did make us feel like superheroes.