Delivery ‘a Christmas miracle’
Paramedics rush to help Brockton family
A Brockton mom received an unexpected “Christmas miracle” yesterday thanks to emergency responders who helped her and her husband deliver a healthy baby girl at home while a Christmas Day snowstorm raged outside.
Jalisa Simmons, 29, was 38 weeks pregnant when she suddenly went into labor about 9:30 a.m. Her fifth child, Neal Harlem, was safely delivered by the child’s father, who was coached through the post-delivery process by a Brockton Fire Department dispatcher who answered the line when he called for an ambulance, according to Johnathon Bobbitt-Miller, a spokesman for Brewster Ambulance Services.
Minutes after the birth, Bobbitt-Miller said two paramedics arrived at the family’s Crowell Street home, where they cut the umbilical cord, checked the infant’s airway, warmed her up by wrapping her in blankets and placed her in her mother’s arms.
“It’s a Christmas miracle,” he said. “The baby was crying and the cord had not been cut. The (paramedics) helped cut the cord so the mother could hold her baby and relieve the father of his duties . ... They got quite the Christmas gift.”
Bobbitt-Miller, who said Simmons and her baby were then taken to nearby Good Samaritan Medical Center, applauded all of the first responders who lent a hand.
“The conditions lined up. The father remained calm. Everything aligned perfectly,” he said. “To have a baby delivered Christmas morning, that’s just good stuff. That’s why we do what we do. That’s the reason we’re there — to make a difference.”
Although Bobbitt-Miller acknowledged that paramedics working Christmas Day would probably rather be spending time with their families, he said the two paramedics who responded to Simmons’ house yesterday got almost as much gratification from the birth as the infant’s parents.
“To have this happen on Christmas, and Christmas morning, this is a day, whether it’s the fire department, the paramedics or the EMTs, they’ll never forget this day,” Bobbitt-Miller said. “And they’ll never forget this patient.”