911 Operator Helps Man Deliver Own Child On Side Of Parkway East
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - The 911 operator who talked a father through delivering his baby girl on the side of the Parkway East said she was just doing her job.
KDKA-TV's Lisa Washington sat down with the operator who's also expecting her own bundle of joy.
Alyssa Holland says this wasn't the first emergency call she'd taken for a woman going into labor, but it was her most memorable.
The couple had just come through the Squirrel Hill Tunnel and was heading to the hospital, but based on the baby's progress, the father to be had to pull over and deliver his baby.
Holland takes dozens of emergency calls every night. She says it was between 2 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. Tuesday when a father called, because his wife was in labor inside the couple's car, as they were heading to the hospital.
"He was coming through the Squirrel Hill Tunnel. He was screaming that his wife's in labor in case he loses us," Holland said.
The call wasn't lost and with no time to waste, Holland said she soon learned the couple wouldn't make it to the hospital in time.
"He said the head was out whenever he pulled over," she said.
Her instructions were specific.
"He took off his shirt and used that as a cloth. He took off his shoelaces and used them to tie the umbilical cord," Holland said. "Neither one were [calm] and there's no sense is saying you need to stay calm. I tried, but she's pushing a baby out and it's something he never thought he'd do."
It only took for few minutes for the baby girl to arrive.
"My biggest thing was waiting to hear the baby cry, like making sure baby's crying, baby's breathing," Holland said.
Holland, who's eight months pregnant with her second child, also wanted to know the baby's gender.
While she doesn't know if she's having a boy or a girl, she says she hopes the baby isn't born on the side of the highway, but if that happens, she'll be prepared.