Community Corner
Amazing! Listen as 911 Dispatcher Helps Family Deliver Baby on Bathroom Floor
When his son came two weeks early on his own birthday, Anthony Roberson got the surprise present of a lifetime.
If there is one person you’d want on the other end of a 911 call, it’s Orange County Fire Authority Dispatcher Velecia Aguilar.
Luckily for one San Juan Capistrano family, it was the calm, no-nonsense voice of Aguilar that answered when Lauren Roberson went into early labor last week.
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Aguilar sent paramedics to the scene while calmly explaining to Roberson’s mother-in-law how to help deliver her grandson on the bathroom floor.
“I think my daughter-in-law is having her baby,” the soon-to-be grandmother explained to Aguilar. “I don’t think I can get her to the hospital.”
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Unfazed, Aguilar responds,“The paramedics are coming. If we have to deliver the baby, we’re going to do it right now.”
In a state of disbelief, the mother-in-law says, “Ok, She just came from the hospital today.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Aguilar cuts in. “Look and tell me if the baby is coming or not.”
During the six and a half-minute call, Aguilar calmly directs the grandmother, who stepped up despite her obvious panic.
Amid the Roberson’s screams, Aguilar directs the grandmother to “grab some clean towels and lay them on the floor next to the baby, do it now...Put your hand between her legs. In case the head comes out I want you to catch the head, ok? Just stay right there. Everything is going to be fine. Get ready to catch.”
Aguilar goes on to tell the woman how to catch her grandson and to make sure the umbilical cord isn’t wrapped around the newborn’s neck.
“Keep the baby turned a little bit to the side and wipe out his mouth,” directs Aguilar. “Wipe his face and his mouth and do not pull on the chord.”
Then it’s her turn to panic a little.
“Is the baby breathing? Tap his foot a little bit. I need to hear him cry,” she says.
Tense moments follow as the dispatcher repeatedly asks if the baby is breathing.
Finally, little Mason Anthony Roberson, weighing 7 pounds 11 ounces, lets out a wail.
“There we go! Congratulations, you guys,” says Aguilar. “Good job, Grandma. Congratulations. They’re outside. They’re gonna help you guys.”
As first reported by Orange County Register, Mason and his mother Lauren Roberson recovered at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo. Mason was born two weeks early - on his dad’s birthday.
Video by Patch Staffer Renee Schiavone; Photos Courtesy of the Orange County Fire Authority
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