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Veteran responders get first chance to deliver baby

Veteran responders get first chance to deliver baby

Despite 34 years of emergency medical training among them, three Carnegie EMS employees had never been dispatched to the type of predawn emergency awaiting them Oct. 2.

They were called to deliver a baby.

John Heller, Post-Gazette
Medic Terry Kerr, left, with mom Donna Riedel and her newborn daughter, Delaney Marie, and paramedics Heather Lewis Demsher and Amber Platek, right.
Click photo for larger image.

Medic Terry Kerr and paramedics Amber Platek and Heather Demsher met up with the vehicle at Seventh Street and West Main where, within minutes, the expectant mother was transferred into their ambulance and, with just one push, Delaney Marie Riedel was born at 7:01 a.m.

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"With all the sadness and death we get to see, this is actually the first time I've gotten to be totally happy on a call," said Mrs. Demsher, who acknowledged struggling to hold back tears.

The saga began two hours before, when Donna Riedel, 38, of Pristine Farms in Cecil, was awakened by what she thought was labor. She showered before waking her husband, Andy, 44.

At 6 a.m., she called her doctor, who inquired what her shortest labor had been with her three daughters. After hearing the response, "seven hours," the doctor suggested the couple head for Magee-Womens Hospital in Oakland.

The Riedels got onto Interstate 79, which was jammed with rush-hour traffic in South Fayette.

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"We weren't [on the interstate] two minutes when she started yelling for me to call 911," said Mr. Riedel, a chemical engineer, who grabbed his cell phone and alerted a dispatcher that he would get off at Carnegie.

Mr. Riedel drove about a half mile before pulling over.

"It was dark and I could see the ambulance coming with its headlights on," he recalled.

Though Mrs. Reidel's water had broken by this time, the EMS crew was able to move her safely into the ambulance, asking her to not push until an intravenous line had been inserted.

"I really didn't expect my labor to be that fast," said Mrs. Riedel, who said she wasn't scared until she saw the heavy traffic on the interstate. A pharmacist at Eckerd Drugs at the Crafton-Ingram Shopping Center, Mrs. Riedel said, she ordered her husband to call 911 because she remembered reading about procedures for emergency roadside deliveries.

"[The EMS crew] did tell me that this was their first [delivery], but not till later, fortunately," she chuckled, adding she was very glad the emergency medical workers were at the scene.

After Delaney was born, the crew cleaned her up and her father cut the umbilical cord. The ambulance took the mother and baby to Magee, where hospital personnel were waiting for them.

Delaney, weighed in at 6 pounds, 13 ounces and was 19 inches long. She joins sisters Jordan, 10; Taylor, 8; and Kendall, 4.

First Published: October 12, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

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