Florida first responders deliver breech baby in apartment
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - It was a scary situation for some first responders in Volusia County when they had to deliver a baby.
Casey Manfredi is a Daytona Beach paramedic who helped.
"So we get a call for childbirth in progress," he said. "When we get those calls, that doesn't necessarily always mean that there's a child about to be born, but in this instance, it did!"
Manfredi said these are the kinds of incidents for which they train. His Daytona Beach Fire and Volusia County medics crew raced to the scene. They went into a small apartment, and this was what they found.
"One female, actively in labor," he said. "Sometimes, when a childbirth is in progress, it doesn't always mean you're gonna deliver right there on the spot. Sometimes you put them in the ambulance and take them to the hospital, but in this instance, it was pretty imminent that the child was coming, so we went right to work right there and turned the studio into a delivery room."
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They constantly train for the worst, and things suddenly took a turn when the baby girl came out feet first.
"Once we got past the shoulders, we had to get the head out of there, and that was the biggest obstacle. That's what probably took the most time. But then after that, we got the baby out, clamped the umbilical cord, cut the umbilical cord, which, I have one child, so I didn't think I'd have to do that to someone who wasn't my own child, but hey, that's the business we're in!" Manfredi said.
The fire department said the baby was born prematurely. Manfredi said it was amazing hearing her first breath.
"The baby was very premature, so once we hear the baby cry and start breathing, it was like a really good feeling, you know? And I'm pretty sure I yelled 'Let's go!' right there in the apartment."
The first responders helped deliver the child safely and got the baby and mom to Halifax Health Hospital. The fire department said the mother and baby are doing well.