Mass. Responders Deliver Baby in Ambulance
Nov. 13--ANDOVER -- Five firefighters helped a local family deliver a baby in front of their home on Arundel Street yesterday morning, after determining the mother was too far into labor to make a trip to the hospital.
"We got there and she was in active labor,'' Andover Fire Deputy Chief Keith Weightman said. "By the time she got to the ambulance, they decided she wasn't going to make it (to Lawrence General Hospital). She was too far along."
The mother was put into the ambulance and firefighters helped deliver the baby in the vehicle, Weightman said. Advanced Life Support workers from Lawrence General Hospital helped once they arrived.
Assisting in the delivery were firefighters Richie Capano, Jamison Lockhart, Cliff Pattullo, Garrett Farris and Lt. Bob Dalton.
The Fire Department was not naming the family involved in the call, citing laws protecting medical information. The baby is their second child -- a healthy boy weighing 7 pounds, 15 ounces, Weightman said.
With the on-scene arrival time clocked at 7:26 a.m. and departure tallied at 7:45 a.m., it took 19 minutes to deliver the baby and send the family -- new addition in hand -- to Lawrence General, according to Weightman.
"There's quite a few guys here who can claim they've delivered," Weightman said of Fire Department members. "It does happen once, twice a year maybe."
Copyright 2013 - The Eagle-Tribune, North Andover, Mass.
