Baby's arrival off the charts

FARMINGTON — Tanna Dyer has handled a lot of emergency calls in her 11 years as a dispatcher for the Davis County Sheriff's Office, but something different happened Saturday.

A baby boy made his debut much earlier than expected — at 22 weeks gestation — and Dyer coached the child's grandfather through the immediate post-delivery care.

The call came in at 9:14 a.m. from the grandfather.

"He said his daughter was having a baby and then said, 'Oh, the baby's out now.' We went from there," Dyer said.

She followed emergency medical dispatch cards that outline the proper steps in certain situations: "We needed to find out if the baby was breathing, trying to get the umbilical cord tied off and also trying to get the placenta to deliver."

The identity of the baby, his mother and grandfather could not be released by the sheriff's office because of federal privacy protection laws.

Dyer got a chance to talk to the 30-year-old mother while the baby's grandfather was tying the umbilical cord.

"She was obviously nervous, but she was calm enough that she could do what I asked her to do," Dyer said. "Both of them did a really good job."

Paramedics, an ambulance, a Farmington police officer and Life Flight were sent to the home. The baby was taken by helicopter to McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden. The woman was taken to Davis Hospital and Medical Centerin Layton and was released later to see the baby at McKay-Dee.

The call lasted eight minutes. Dyer, who has two children of her own, admitted she was a little nervous, having never taken a call quite like this one.

"You'd think in 11 years I would have, but no," she said. "I've helped deliver babies before over the phone."

One of the paramedics told Dyer the child was alive when crews arrived on the scene and appeared to be doing fairly well — but it was too soon to tell what the outcome would be, given the early birth.

Most pregnancies last 40 weeks. A baby arriving at 22 weeks is considered extremely premature, but babies born at that age have been able to survive due to advances in medical care.

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E-mail: lindat@desnews.com