Dispatchers at the 9-1-1 call centre are trained to remain calm, collected and supportive during some of the most stressful, high-intensity situations imaginable.
The unexpected is to be expected.
Still, it’s not everyday a dispatcher guides a caller on how to tie off a newborn baby’s umbilical cord.
But that’s exactly what happened to 9-1-1 emergency dispatcher Christopher Moore, now a member of the exclusive “Stork Club.”
Moore received a call from a distraught person attempting to help a woman who was in active labour. As he entered the caller’s address, the baby was born.
“(Moore) immediately began to support the caller with pre-arrival dispatch life support instructions,” stated a news release from Municipal and Community Affairs, which oversees NWT 9-1-1.
As first responders rushed to the mother, Moore told the caller how to clean the minutes-old baby. He instructed the caller to ensure the baby was awake and breathing, and to keep both the baby and the mother warm until first responders arrived.
Moore even walked the caller through the process of tying off the baby’s umbilical cord.
He stayed on the line until paramedics arrived at the scene, continuously reassuring the caller that assistance was on the way.
Moore began training for the job in September before 9-1-1 officially went live in the NWT in November.
“As a new emergency dispatcher, I feel a great sense of pride of having helped someone in a stressful moment of their life where the end result was a healthy baby being born into the world,” stated Moore.
“This experience has been quite rewarding as I truly felt like I made a difference in providing pre-arrival instruction prior to the paramedics arriving on scene. Being born and having lived all my life in the North, I feel truly grateful to be able to give back to the people of the NWT,” added Moore.
Nationally, it’s not uncommon for 9-1-1 emergency dispatchers to receive an active labour call. But few dispatchers have had to assist with a delivery, stated the MACA news release.
“NWT 9-1-1 has had a larger than average number of calls needing dispatch life support instructions,” stated NWT 911 manager Ashley Geraghty.
“I assure you our dispatchers have been deeply moved by the two cases in which they had to instruct callers to go hands on chest or help callers cope with obvious signs of death. I cried with happiness when I got the news that we had helped to deliver a baby,” continued Geraghty.
"This is what 9-1-1 is all about—why we come to work every day and be the calm.”