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911 Dispatcher Coaches Parents In Delivery Of Baby

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By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 5, 2008

Updated: 07/05/2008 09:54 pm

Nine months pregnant, Sheila Garcia just wanted to brush her teeth before heading to the hospital to give birth Saturday.

Moments later, though, she found herself having the baby on the bathroom floor.

Taylor Dalton Garcia's birth turned out to be the third in six days in which dispatchers for Hillsborough County Fire Rescue coached anxious parents. The dispatchers usually help deliver an infant about once a month, at best, rescuers said.

"I don't know what's going on," David Ferris, the agency's communications supervisor, said with a laugh. "It was like, 'Holy mackerel!'"

A girl born Monday at an insurance office off Waters Avenue June 30 was the first arrival in the mini baby boom. A baby boy burst into the world via his parents' living room about 3:30 a.m. Independence Day.

On Saturday, dispatcher Hattie Strickland answered the phone call from Garcia's husband, Dave. A mother of three, Strickland recognized the nature of the screams in the background.

"She was definitely in a lot of pain. Since I've had a baby, you know that type of primal scream. It hurts," Strickland said.

It wasn't the first time the dispatcher had handled a delivery over the phone, following the agency's prescribed protocols.

"I have done it one time before, but it didn't count because there was a midwife in the car," Strickland said.

Sheila Garcia, recovering at University Community Hospital, and her husband, Dave, chuckled Saturday about the rapid arrival of their newborn about 2:51 that morning. Taylor measured 21 inches and weighed 8 pounds.

"We were trying to avoid being the false-alarm couple," said Sheila Garcia, 30, who also has a 16-month-old boy.

"It's something out of a movie," said Dave Garcia, 38, who works as a sales manager. "There wasn't time to be scared. It just happened."

Sheila Garcia, who works for a wine distributor, was due to deliver July 11. Friday, the family opted for a low-key July Fourth in Forest Hills, setting off fireworks from the house.

Garcia said she felt contractions about 20 to 30 minutes apart but didn't want to be turned away from the hospital for arriving too early. Shortly after 2 a.m., however, she awoke her husband, telling him to call the doctor.

"I wanted to brush my teeth, but I never made it," she recalled. The pains increased, and Garcia told her husband to skip the doctor and call 911.

On the 911 recording, Strickland advised Dave Garcia to support the baby's head and neck once it appeared. "Remember, the baby's going to be slippery when it comes out, so don't drop it, OK?" she said.

Once the baby's head was clear, Strickland said, "You're doing OK. … Have her push hard to get the baby out."

Dave Garcia relayed the message. "Come on, hon," he urged on the recording.

"Is his head all the way out? Oh, my god," his wife said in the background.

A few moments later, the father piped up, "He's out. He's out."

Strickland told Dave Garcia to clean the infant's airway, rest the baby on the mother's belly and swaddle the child in a clean, dry towel.

"It was pretty wild," he marveled later. "Last time I got to cut the umbilical cord. This time I got to tie it off with a shoelace."

So much for an epidural, his wife added. "I felt the pressure, but I didn't know it could come that fast."

Strickland was so excited she couldn't sleep after her shift ended.

"We have gotten these calls often this week, but we don't usually," Strickland said. "We don't normally get to walk them all the way through it and hear the baby crying in the background. I couldn't settle down. It was pretty exciting."

Ferris, the supervisor, was at a loss to explain what might be causing the increased number of dispatcher deliveries.

"I'm going to laugh if I get up tomorrow and see in the news that we've delivered a fourth one."

Reporter Jamie Pilarczyk contributed to this report. Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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