Paramedic Intern Helps Deliver Baby In Harrowing Birth

GLENDALE, CA — A baby boy is alive today thanks to the help of a paramedic and an intern who helped his mother deliver him on her floor, resuscitating the baby when he was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck.

Paramedic Leslie Scott and paramedic intern Mike Sevillano were called to a home in Glendale at 1:30 a.m. Monday to find things going very wrong for a mother in labor. Coincidentally, Sevillano had just taught a class to firefighters on childbirth and neonatal resuscitation hours before putting his skills to use in a real emergency.

"Firefighter Paramedic Leslie Scott took charge and guided the mom to the floor along with Paramedic
Intern Mike Sevillano," according to Anita Shandi of the Glendale Fire Department. "They instantly realized that the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck and the baby was not breathing."

Scott removed the umbilical cord from around the baby's neck, delivered him, and the paramedics began chest compressions to get him breathing. It wasn't until mother and baby were in the back of an ambulance racing to the hospital that the newborn began to turn pink and breath on his own, according to the department.

The Glendale Fire Department Tuesday commended several members of the team who helped the mother and newborn including Derek Tamburro, Kevin Stockton, Jessie Castro and ambulance operators Edgar Arana, Zachary Polte, Karapet Emishyan and Jose Navarro.

That Scott and Sevillano were there that night might just have been fate, department officials suggested.

"Just that same day, Paramedic Intern Sevillano conducted a company school on childbirth and neonatal
resuscitation to the crew," Shandi said in a written statement. "They had just hours before discussed this exact scenario so when the dispatch came in and the supplemental texts were coming across the crew knew they were meant to go help this baby and his mom."