SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — A Seminole County dispatcher is being recognized for helping a couple deliver a baby at home.
Nora Acuna took her first pregnancy-related call and it was a woman already in labor. Baby Riley’s first few minutes of life started out with a bang.
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“I’m shirtless and I’ve got my shoelace wrapped around the umbilical of my baby still connected to my wife, sweating bullets,” dad Brendan Burke said. “And Victoria in the passenger seat of my truck just with a big smile on her face.”
It all started after Burke and his wife Victoria made a 911 call last Friday night, after she went into labor. Acuna picked up the line.
“I’m always ready for whatever’s gonna be on the other side of the phone,” Acuna said.
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Acuna has just under a year of experience as a Seminole County dispatcher.
She helped guide Burke through the delivery process, making sure he supported little Riley’s head and shoulders, where to place her and making sure she had a good airway to breathe.
“We appreciated your calm, confident voice on the phone definitely kept us at ease during the process,” Victoria said. “And everybody who helped especially our firemen or EMS helped us tremendously.”
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While Acuna herself has four kids, she said she’s never gone through anything like this before.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I just helped deliver a baby over the phone,’” she said.
Her quick thinking and actions are why Seminole County honored her with the “Stork Award” memorializing what turned out to be a great outcome through the intense situation.
Read: ‘Nothing short of a miracle’: Dispatcher walks couple through delivering baby at home
“A lot of times you don’t really know the outcome. I mean, I know that they delivered a baby girl, a healthy baby girl, but it’s amazing to see her in person. And to know that I helped with that,” Acuna said.
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