Dispatchers busy with deliveries

On occasion, emergency personnel are called on to coach baby deliveries when the little ones decide to come quicker than the ride to the hospital. It doesn't happen too often, but this weekend was an exception for Davis County dispatchers.

One baby in Farmington chose to make his entry into the world on Saturday after only 22 1/2 weeks of gestation, making it a close call, said dispatch supervisor Tom Norvelle.

"It's not uncommon to help guide someone through a birth, but for this one it was imperative to save him in the field," he said. Oftentimes dispatchers will talk callers through enough to get the baby breathing, cleaned up and the umbilical cord tied off, but Norvelle said paramedics usually arrive during the process and take over.

"We're always happy to hear when paramedics arrive," he said.

Saturday's baby was more of a crisis because he was already being delivered when the call was made, and he was extremely early.

"It's almost unheard of to have a baby survive an at-home delivery that young," Norvelle said.

Tanna Dyer, a Davis County dispatcher for nearly 11 years, talked an anxious grandfather through the unscheduled delivery. The baby was then flown to McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden where he remains in the intensive care unit. Dyer has played a part in a total of three deliveries in her duties as a dispatcher, but this baby, she said, was the smallest.

"He's still alive today and wow, I don't know how," Norvelle said.

He said Dyer was able to help the family through a series of cards that contains a list of procedures necessary during delivery. The cards are issued by the National Academy for Emergency Medical Dispatcher Protocol and deliver simple instructions for nearly every emergency situation. He said they were actually implemented by a doctor in Utah and are now used in several states.

Because the baby was so early, a helicopter transport was required. The helicopter, however, couldn't land close enough to the home, so a 200-pound newborn incubator was delivered on a stretcher via ambulance to the home.The baby was then taken back to the helicopter, making the delivery "quite the process," Norvelle said.

On average, Davis County emergency workers encounter one baby delivery every three months.

On Monday, another baby took their count to two deliveries in the past three days. But Monday's baby wasn't an untimely delivery, just a little early, Norvelle said. He's worked as a dispatcher for nearly 14 years and only assisted in a couple of them; most of Davis Counties' 25 dispatchers have had a similar experience.

"It's a wonderful job when things like this happen and they all come out successful," he said.

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E-mail: wleonard@desnews.com