Emergency call brings new life

GARDNERVILLE - When EMTs arrived at a home in the 1300 block of Toler Lane on Monday, a different emergency arose.

"Within two minutes we were delivering a little baby girl," said Capt. Bobby Wartgow from Station 14 in Gardnerville.

Douglas Communications officer Natalie Escalante said the original phone call came from a neighbor who reported that her friend was not feeling well.

"I did some things to make sure that things didn't get worse," she said. "When we asked a few more questions, we found out that the woman was pregnant."

Emergency crews were dispatch at 1:55 p.m., and within five minutes they had arrived at the home.

"It happened pretty fast," Wartgow said. "When we arrived she was pretty ready to deliver."

EMTs Matt Hill and Andy Penucci assisted Wartgow in trying to revive the little girl, which Wartgow said was really small. The little girl was born at 2:02 p.m.

"We had a good heart rate, but we were not getting anything on her respiratory," he said.

The technicians worked to get the breathing started.

"I've delivered other infants in the field that were healthier," Wartgow said, "and this one was about as sick as you would want to get."

He said the child was having a hard time breathing.

"You get anxious, because it's a baby and you want to see it do well," said Wartgow, who is a father of four children.

Finally, the newborn drew its own breaths and sighs were released by the technicians.

"Up to this point we were pretty much focused on the baby," he said.

The child was take to Carson Valley Medical Center, and later transported to St. Mary's in Reno.

Wartgow said he's had a lot of experiences while working as a volunteer and emergency medical technician over the last 12 years, but these kinds calls are always the hardest.

Last report was that both mother and child were doing well.