On Thursday, at 6:03 a.m., Parkland Ambulance paramedics assisted in the delivery of a new baby boy. The delivery happened 3 kilometres west of Prince Albert on Highway #3. This is the sixth time paramedics have delivered a baby in an ambulance this year.
“It’s one of those nice things that happen in our world,” says Lyle Karasiuk, director of public affairs for Parkland Ambulance. “So often in our paramedics world, they deal with a lot of tragedy and a lot of bad things, you might say. It’s nice to do one of these out of hospital deliveries because we know that we’re birthing a new baby, it’s a brand new life. It’s one of those things that really gets the staff excited about what they do, not to say that they’re not excited about what they do everyday but it gives them a new perspective …”
According to Karasiuk, two female paramedics were on duty when they received the call.
“I spoke to them very briefly this morning at the end of their shift and they were very excited,” Karasiuk said. “Again, it’s something that we don’t do often and it’s something that is a good feeling inside because we’ve made a really big difference.”
According to a press release, the baby is the second child for a 27-year-old woman from the Debden area. Both the mother and child are healthy and resting in Victoria Hospital.
“From our perspective, we really want to congratulate the family,” Karasiuk said. This is something for them — it’s a great experience to have a brand new baby. They probably didn’t plan to have it in the back of an ambulance this morning at six o’clock in the morning; but understand that our paramedics in this case, as they always are, are very highly trained and very well skilled at what they do. Being able to do these wonderful things are great experiences for our staff, they’re a great opportunity … that we make a really positive impact in what we do each and every day.”
