Council EMS Delivers Baby
After a pretty rough week that involved difficult calls, Council EMT’s were dispatched to Council resident Erin Payne’s home where she was in labor with her second child on November 10th. Payne’s husband works in Boise, so she was alone.
EMT Rianne Horsch, was just getting ready for her 12 hour shift when she heard the call come in at her home. She was able to arrive at the Payne residence within six minutes. The ambulance arrived about a minute later.
While waiting for the EMTs to arrive, dispatcher Kim Peterson stayed on the phone with Payne and with the McCall Hospital.
Horsch said that she wanted another woman in the ambulance with her to help with the mom, so she enlisted Amy Dickenson, who is typically an ambulance driver and who was not scheduled to work to stay with her in the ambulance.
Robert Ray drove the ambulance and Dan Huter held Payne’s two-year-old son William, while on route to the McCall hospital.
Horsch had worked as both a certified nursing assistant in labor and delivery and as a medical assistant before she took time off to have her own children. She worked briefly at the Adams County Health Center and just passed her EMT test in August.
She said they had to pull off the road just past the Tamarack Mill because the baby was not going to wait to be delivered.
Horsch said she was grateful that Dickenson was with her. “She held mom’s hand and kept her calm. There was a cord issue, but it was not a complete wrap around,” she said.
Just after baby Brielle was born, a paramedic from McCall jumped into the ambulance, but the happy event had already taken place.
Brielle weighed six pounds, twelve ounces and measured 19 inches. Mom and baby arrived safely at the McCall hospital, where they stayed for a day before returning to Council.
The Council EMTs presented mom and her newborn with a gift basket.
All the Council EMTs work 12-hour shifts and are considered compensated volunteers, meaning they get paid for six of those twelve hours.
