(Photo courtesy of Wantagh-Levittown Volunteer Ambulance Corps)
The Wantagh-Levittown Volunteer Ambulance Corps (WLVAC) didn’t expect to deliver a baby last month.
But when Kirsten Manno, Christopher Del Pozzo, Ashley Melnick and Rosa Escobar arrived at the Kahn family home on May 18, the unthinkable happened.
“It was pretty crazy,” Del Pozzo said. “We got a call for active labor around 2:15 p.m. We got there about five minutes later. The cops said her water broke 20 minutes ago. We went inside and she wasn’t crowning yet.”
Fortunately enough, both volunteers were taught how to handle a birthing situation in EMT school. None of the volunteers had ever delivered a baby. That was about to change.
It was too late for the squad to travel to the hospital. It was time for the training to become reality.
“Oh my gosh, it was amazing,” Manno, who is a master’s student at LIU Post, said. “It’s a certain technique to do it. My friends and I on the crew actually practiced delivering one. When the call came over, I said, ‘Oh, we’ll totally get her to the hospital.’ He was crowning, so my adrenaline kicked in.”
The delivery was perfect. The baby and mother were healthy, with no complications at birth. A major reason that the delivery was so smooth was thanks to the chemistry between Manno and Del Pozzo.
“It was like a weight lifted off our shoulders,” Del Pozzo, a regular EMT with a Freeport ambulance organization, said. “It really came down to the training kicking in. It just started happening. We’ve been working together for a few months, so it got to the point to where we know each other’s needs on a call. It was more of little looks and nods to know what to do.”
A month later, First Deputy Chief Emily Brennan and ex-Chief Stephen Grippi presented the crew with certificates and stork pins. Manno was also this year’s recipient of the Basic Life Support Provider of the Year at the WLVAC’s annual installation dinner. This was the first event of its kind for Ambulance 293.
