Emergency, Labor and Delivery teams’ readiness ensures safe care for mother and newborn

Routine emergency-response training and rapid coordination between Emergency Department and Labor and Delivery staff helped ensure the safe transfer and… Routine emergency-response training and rapid coordination between Emergency Department and Labor and Delivery staff helped ensure the safe transfer and care of a mother and newborn after an unexpected delivery in the family car enroute to the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center in the early morning of Oct. 7. Hearing a cry of “Help! My wife is having a baby!” shocked Patrizia Brown into action just outside the CRDAMC parking garage around 7 a.m. Brown, a certified nursing assistant assigned to the Women’s Health Clinic, immediately rendered assistance to the distraught new father, directing him to the emergency room entrance.

Brown alerted emergency department staff where registered nurse Debra Woods activated the response team to assess the mother and baby. While alerting staff, the father, Spc. Matthew Perez, an automated logistics specialist, close behind Brown into the department said, “correction she had the baby”. “Since he said she had already delivered, I put on gloves went to the care and assessed the baby and mom,” Woods said. “I made sure the baby had good coloring, was breathing, and that mom was okay and holding the baby securely.” Woods instructed the mother to stimulate the newborn by stroking the baby’s