Photo By 1st Lt. Sydney Sedlak | Skyler Quintanilla holds her son in her home at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., Feb. 7,...... read more read more
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Senior Airman Eric Storm, 2nd SFS installation patrolman, along with Airman 1st Class Jonathan Casales, 2nd SFS installation entry controller, heard the dispatch and sped to the mother’s location.
Skyler Quintanilla had gone into labor 13 weeks premature and gave birth to her son a few steps from her front door.
Storm and Casales were the first emergency responders to arrive on the scene.
“All I could see was blood and this tiny, silent baby,” Casales said. “The scene was chaotic. I tried to calm down the mother and get information from the father who had a phone to each ear, contacting family to watch their other children and emergency dispatchers to get an ambulance on scene.”
Storm, an experienced security forces Airman, was paralyzed at the sight of a potential death. When the baby finally cried out, he left his daze and immediately tended to the family.
“It was very difficult to process everything,” Storm said. “Within a few minutes the ambulance was there, and the two emergency medical technicians were checking on the baby. They were doing everything they could to take care of both the mother and the newborn. That’s when the driver told us someone else would have to drive the ambulance so both EMTs could provide emergency care to Quintanilla and her baby.”
Storm stepped up and volunteered to drive.
“My dad was an emergency responder, and when I was little he would occasionally take me for ride-alongs,” Storm said. “I remembered a few things from those days and applied them to my sudden situation.”
With his simple skillset of knowing when to use certain types of sirens, Storm was able to successfully get the mother and baby to a hospital almost 30 minutes from base. When they arrived, the mother was taken to post delivery and the baby to the neonatal wing. The paramedics told both Storm and Casales that when they arrived on scene, the baby had a 30 percent chance to live. However, when they reached the hospital, the percentage rose to 77.
Storm left the hospital that night not knowing if his actions had helped save the newborn.
Months later, while Storm was working at the main gate entrance, Quintanilla handed her ID to him.
“I quickly asked her how she was doing and if the baby was ok,” Storm said. “She smiled and thanked me. She said his name was Andrew, and they were bringing him home that day.”
| Date Taken: | 02.07.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 02.16.2018 11:27 |
| Story ID: | 266335 |
| Location: | BARKSDALE AFB, LOUISIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 9 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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