Two local dispatchers honored for helping save baby, mother during premature birth

EATON — Two Preble County dispatchers are being recognized for their work on a recent call.

On January 7, the dispatch center received at 911 call from West Manchester with mother that had just delivered a baby early. The 25-week-old baby was still in the amniotic sac.

The mother was hysterical, screaming for help and Dispatchers Katelynn Halcomb and Jared Riley were able to walk the mother through removing the child from the sac, according to a release. Once out of the sac, the baby was not breathing and the mother was hemorrhaging.

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“It was definitely stressful,” Riley said.

Riley and Halcomb worked together and gave the mother and her family member instructions to perform life-saving measures until they were able to get the baby breathing.

“We were on the phone for an extended period of time with both of them, waiting on emergency services to get there,” Riley said.

The baby boy weighed 1 pound 18 ounces and Preble County Sheriff Mike Simpson said he was currently “doing well” at Dayton Children’s Hospital. Simpson said he is expected to be released at some point in April. The mother was expected to make a full recovery.

Halcomb said she was relieved when it was all said and done.

On Wednesday, the Preble County Commissioners and the Sheriff’s Office honored both dispatchers at a commission meeting.

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“It’s nice to be recognized, but it’s just part of the job,” Halcomb said.

Simpson told News Center 7′s John Bedell that while dispatchers have call sheets to help walk them through all kinds of scenarios, there was not a sheet to help them with this.

“No, there isn’t a playbook and I think just the background with them, the training they’ve had, really helped them just make decisions as a team,” Simpson said.

Simpson said he was very proud of the dispatchers and was happy to see them be honored for a job well done.

“Dispatchers are kind of behind the scenes, behind the telephone, behind the radio, and these are the people that are involved in it from start to finish and it’s important that we recognize them for a job well done,” Simpson said.

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