Visiting with each other recently were, left to right Middlebury EMT Kristine Boisits, Mike DeSantis, Joann DeSantis (holding baby Abigail) and Middlebury EMT Beverly Dassonville. Boisits and Dassonville helped deliver Abigail at the DeSantis home May 5. (Submitted photo)
By MARJORIE NEEDHAM
Middlebury EMTs Kristine Boisits and Beverly Dassonville were awarded their pink stork pins for delivering a baby girl. (Submitted photo)
Baby bonnets for newborns were added to the supplies on Middlebury ambulances in April. On May 5, emergency medical technicians (EMTs) used one for the first time, gently slipping it on the head of Abigail DeSantis , a baby they had just delivered.
EMT Kristine Boisits said it was the first time she delivered a baby since she began serving as an EMT 13 years ago. She and paramedic Beverly Dassonville, who has served for 11 years, responded to a call at the Mike and Joann DeSantis home in Middlebury about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 5.
Joann, 24, was in labor with her second child. She said her delivery date was May 17, but when she went to the doctor Monday, May 4, he told her he expected the baby to arrive within the week. Baby Abigail decided to arrive less than 24 hours later.
Dassonville and Boisits, working with a paramedic from American Medical Response, delivered the baby at 1:05 a.m., just an hour and 5 minutes after Joann went into labor. Dassonville said she initially went to get the stretcher out of the ambulance. When she came back to the house, the paramedic had decided the baby’s birth was imminent, and they needed to deliver the baby before transporting anyone to the hospital.
“It was a great experience,” Boisits said. “The mother was wonderful and she did just great.”
Dassonville said the delivery scene was remarkably calm. “We all knew what we had to do. The mother made it easier. She was a real trooper. She said the baby is coming and one big push and the baby was there. She made it easy for us.” And she said of the baby bonnets, “Who knew two weeks later we would need them?”
Joann said everyone who responded to the call, from the police officer to the paramedic and the EMTs, was excellent. “Everyone was calm,” she said. “They are so good.”
It may have helped that Joann and Mike have a farm. Joann said, “We see animals having babies all the time.” And, she said, she was back at the farm Thursday, two days after giving birth.
Joann had not planned to have a home birth. Her obstetrician is in New Milford, and she was scheduled to go to Sharon Hospital, an hour’s drive from Middlebury, for the baby’s birth. When her water broke at 12 a.m., she called her mom to come from Bridgewater and stay with her first-born child, Josephine, 18 months. By 12:30 a.m., Joann’s contractions were two minutes apart, so they decided to go to Waterbury Hospital instead, and her husband called the ambulance.
“I knew it was too late,” Joann said. “They delivered my baby on the bedroom floor. Then they put her right on my chest and then they put us on a stretcher.”
Dassonville said the staff at Waterbury Hospital’s trauma room was ready and waiting when the EMTs rolled Joann’s stretcher through the door. “The mom waved and said, ‘I’m here,’” Dassonville said. “Everyone had a smile on their face. It was a really happy time. Most of the time you are bringing patients in and it’s sad or traumatic.”
The week of May 17-23 was national EMS week, and Boisits and Dassonville were among those honored at an awards dinner at Waterbury Hospital. Each got a pink stork pin for her uniform to let everyone know they delivered a baby girl.
May 24, Boisits and Dassonville visited baby Abigail and her parents. They brought gifts for her and her sister Josephine, and Joann had gifts for them, too, boxes of Bridgewater chocolates.
Dassonville said, “Now we’re friends on Facebook so we can watch baby Abigail grow.”
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