My trainee and I had another BBA (that’s “Born Before Arrival”!) in the middle of a long, hard nightshift. I’m beginning to think she attracts them; I’d only had five in the two-and-a-half years I’d been at Control and now I have had two in three weeks!
Anyway, this BBA was a bit different from the usual variety. Normally someone rings up as the woman realises she is about to give birth and isn’t going to make it to the hospital by conventional means in time. In this case, the baby had made it all the way out before the husband had managed to scramble to the phone.
“She gave birth, she gave birth…” he kept telling us. At first I thought he was telling us that his wife had recently given birth and now had some kind of problem, but then I clocked that she had actually just given birth that very second.
“What’s the address?” asked my trainee.
“101 Clajakjstaiteiowhkdstnaskykajstykasyasoyjsahajalalallaala Street, E16!” said the man. I’m not exaggerating; his address really was that complicated. To make matters worse, he had a really strong accent of some variety, which made it hard to understand his spelling of the word, and spoke very quickly. He then got a bit annoyed that we hadn’t managed to find the address straight away, and started yelling at us to “hurry up” (really annoying when you are waiting for someone to convey some information to you) and then told us that the baby was “floppy and not moving”.
Uh oh!
Fortunately we got the address on the second attempt and set about examining the baby. There was no crying whatsoever - I couldn’t even tell the baby was there, but the father told me — rather uncertainly — that the baby was breathing and moving her arms and legs a little bit. I wasn’t 100% convinced that the baby was breathing, and neither were the dispatch desk, who’d been listening to the call. They had sent two crews, giving both the message that the baby was possibly suspended.
Trainee and I ran through all the instructions, including clearing the baby’s mouth and positioning her to open up her airway, but the baby remained silent. According to the father, she was making a slight gurgling sound (which worried me even more because I didn’t know if it was normal baby gurgling or agonal breathing gurgling) but there was absolutely no hint of crying. It’s not often that anyone wants to hear a crying baby, but believe me, I would have given my right arm to hear a resounding “Waaaaah!” at that point! All we could do was tell him to keep watching the baby and ask every five seconds if she was still breathing, which he said she was. Still no crying.
The first ambulance arrived soon afterwards and the father thanked us for our help and handed the baby over to the crew. We then had a very anxious wait where we checked the call log every 30 seconds to see what was happening. I was terrified that the crew would find that the baby had actually stopped breathing, and that we should have started CPR whilst still on the phone.
After half an hour, a message popped up on the log:
“Rang Royal London to arrange midwife to scene. Mother Jamila Khan, 1/1/80, baby and mother well.”
Phew! Apparently the baby had been fine after a little bit of suction to clear her throat and everything else was totally normal. Still, I will never forget the nasty feeling of not knowing if that baby was really breathing. I wish we had video phones so we could see what was really going on in caller’s houses. I’m so glad this one had a happy ending.
November 29th, 2006 at 10:40 pm
It occurs to me that dispatchers could do something very similar to the public’s method of yelling, “Send an ambulance no-o-w-w-w! HURRY!” -Click- as the phone hangs up. In cases like the one you’ve described, you could call back every couple of minutes.
“Well? So what’s happened? Is your wife okay? Is the baby okay? Huh? Huh? Well?”
I’m sure people would understand. Right?
November 30th, 2006 at 12:43 am
Sounds nervewracking! I guess it would be contrary to LAS policy to have advised the new father to give the baby a good hard pinch to make it cry?
November 30th, 2006 at 1:14 am
Well, it certainly wasn’t part of the protocols… it might have worked, though!
November 30th, 2006 at 1:48 am
Bloody hell mate, this trainee, she’s bad news I tell ya!!!
I say she’s cursed and you’d do well to burn her at the stake!!
November 30th, 2006 at 10:05 am
Blimey, control staff who actually care what happens to patients. Our lot usually just call up to see if we’re available to take that next ‘urgent’ - which is always ‘running out of time’.
BTW sticking a finger in the baby’s mouth sometimes works. Triggers the ’suck’ reflex. Worked for me once on a 2 week old suspended.
Enjoy your nights.
November 30th, 2006 at 10:28 am
[...] Nee Naw [...]
November 30th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
You really don’t like Control, do you, Magwitch
It must be where you work - everyone at London Ambulance Control is lovely. Well, nearly everyone. And I have to admit I’m always pestering crews to take Urgents too - because the damn things sit on our screens all day and we have to ring up the little old ladies every half hour and apologise for the lack of ambulance.
Will remember the finger thing!
November 30th, 2006 at 8:35 pm
The worst kind of job…when something happy quickly becomes something sad…then to top it all off the pt doesn’t fit the specific answers of the AMPDS!
Glad it all turned out well in the end…although i do agree with Zuba - your trainee is cursed!!
Which reminds me to ask…how are you both getting on?
December 19th, 2006 at 2:52 am
Had a call not to different from that one evening. The call came from a woman who said i’ve just had a baby….. I thought she was going to say it was crying or wont sleep but 2 minuites ago were her next words. I asked all the questions got the job in and amb was sent. I then asked her to send someone to get towels etc to wrap the baby in, she said she couldn’t as she was home alone, her partner had gone to drop other kids off when she went into labour and baby had come sooner than expected. I thought mum had done well to deliver a baby with no assistance and remain so calm.
Oh both mum and baby were fine.