Fireman, paramedic deliver baby

Oct. 7, 2009

By PATRICK E. LITOWITZ
plitowitz@ncnewsonline.com

An air of excitement surrounds the birth of a newborn child.

Frank John Donnelly turned the thrill switch up a notch Friday night.

When Johnna Donnelly’s water broke around 10 p.m., she readied for the trip to the hospital. The Highland Avenue resident called her mother to come over and look after her oldest son. She then waited for her husband, John, to return from walking the dog.

Johnna Donnelly didn’t expect an at-home birth.

“It just happened that fast,” she said yesterday.

An hour passed, the baby started to crown. Donnelly said her mother panicked and called 911.

Good move.

A New Castle Fire Department crew — assistant fire chief Jim Donston, firefighter/paramedic Mike Kobbe and firefighter/paramedic Larry Coyne — was alerted at 11:04 p.m. and arrived four minutes later. A Noga Ambulance crew of Capt. Dan Yoder and Bobbi Motter was close behind.

“Childbirth was imminent,” Donston said. “I got on scene, and she was on the living room floor in labor.

“Before Dan got there, the head delivered.”

Yoder entered the room and Donston called him over.

“I walk around the corner (and) Jim says, ‘Dan, I got a problem here,’ ” Yoder said. “I run 1,000 calls a year — half of them in the city of New Castle, and probably 200 of them with Jim. And if Jim says, ‘There’s a problem’ — there’s a problem.”

The umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck, and the head had turned blue.

“I told her, ‘We’re in trouble here. With this next push, you’ve got to give it everything you have,” Donston said. “And she did.”

The initial push allowed Yoder to release the pressure created by the umbilical cord. Two more pushes: the baby’s out and the cord untangled.

Kobbe cut the cord. Yoder suctioned the baby’s mouth and nose. Within a minute, the blue disappeared, replaced by a pink color.

Meet Frank John Donnelly — 8 pounds, 2 ounces and 20 inches long. Time and date of birth: 11:12 p.m. Oct. 2, 2009.

“Sometimes women will be in labor for 20 hours after their water (breaks),” Kobbe said. “It was one of those cases where it happened really quick.

“It was a very healthy delivery. The baby was perfect. There were no complications other than the cord.”

Yoder stimulated the baby, dried him, warmed the child and handed off the crying newborn to Motter. The baby, placed in a foil blanket and towel, and mother then headed to Jameson Hospital.

“It was perfectly timed,” Johnna Donnelly joked. “I’m tired, sore.”

Mother and son remained in the hospital for two days as Frank John was kept on oxygen and monitored.

“The fire department here is phenomenal,” Donnelly said. “They are great first responders.”

In addition to the fire department and Noga, she thanked the maternity ward nurses and Dr. Pek Teh for their care.

“It’s nice to bring somebody into the world,” Yoder said, “instead of ... trying to keep them from leaving.”