Everett Firefighters Deliver Baby Girl into Hands of Mother
By Josh Resnek
It was to have been just another shift for Everett Fire Captain Michael O’Brien, 37, and Firefighters John Goyetche, 64 and Scott Hogan, 50 on Tuesday October 8.
It was hardly just another shift – and they rarely are without something memorable happening.
In its full essence, this experience was about life, a new life and it was about professionalism and training, having the right equipment, and knowing exactly what to do.
It was about Everett fire fighters performing at their very best.
Working out of the Hancock Street fire station these three received a call from dispatcher Jessie King.
It was about 7:30 in the morning. They had just returned from a call for an “alarm off” on Irving Street and had headed back to the station and were conducting equipment checks.
”ACTIVE LABOR” came the call from King.
They put on their equipment, made sure they had their medical bags for childbirth, and they were off.
Gayet drove the fire engine to the location (privacy considerations direct that the location and name of the family remain unpublished).
He parked the truck. They grabbed their gear. They ran into the home.
“You could hear her screaming a bit at the rear of the building,” recalled O’Brien.
“When we reached her, we found her standing up. We checked her condition and tried to calm her,” he added.
He said all of the them from experience and training understood this was to be a text book emergency, right now delivery.
“We knew birth was imminent,” he recalled from speaking with her.
It was the woman’s second child. She was experiencing contractions less than one minute apart.
“We laid her down gently.” “She’s ready,” said Gayet.
All three men held their breath.
Gayet said he was trying to guide the baby out. Then she stopped
pushing. He thought the new baby’s shoulders might be caught in the birth passage.
“We’re all in at this point,” O’Brien said. “She’s in such pain. She’s doing all the work. I thought, she deserves more than this.”
Then with a big push, she births her baby.
“Johnny caught the football,” O’Brien said with a wide smile.
The mother, a younger woman, was crying and overcome with emotion when medics who arrived checked out the baby girl, who let out a big cry as they clamped the umbilical cord and handed her the child.”
“Once that cry was let out, the whole scene changed. It was good,” O’Brien said. “We all just looked at each other. We all felt this was good, breathing some new life into the world,” he added.
All three firefighters credited this successful outcome to training, equipment and support.
“Outcomes like this just don’t happen,” said O’Brien. Indeed.