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Pictured (L to R) are Ron Scott, Mark Hughes, Sheryl Turner holding Aaron, Gary Turner, Don Doan and Rick Hurley.
MENTONE -ÊThanks in part to Mentone Emergency Medical Service, Sheryl Turner and her husband, Gary, of Mentone, are the proud parents of a healthy 8 pound, 13-1/2 ounce son named Aaron.
Aaron was born Sept. 14 in the Mentone ambulance alongside Ind. 25 in Palestine. He was delivered by the emergency crew of Ron Scott, Rick Hurley, Mark Hughes and Don Doan.
According to Doan, Sheryl's doctor in Bremen sent her home that day after deciding her contractions were false labor. Sheryl was already a week late to deliver the baby.
Shortly after the couple arrived home though, she began having hard contractions. Her husband got her in the car and began driving her to the hospital. There was a train on the tracks in Mentone. Sheryl's water broke.
"They would never have made it to Bremen," Doan said.
Firefighters were having a meeting at the Mentone Fire Station, and the Turners made it to the station where an ambulance was called.
"They're just lucky they caught anyone (at the fire station) that night. They just happened to be having an officers meeting," Doan said.
From the time the ambulance was called to the time Aaron was born, only eight minutes passed.
"The baby was coming, there was nothing we could do about it," Doan said. "In the history of Mentone EMS, they only delivered a baby once and that was 20-plus years ago."
He said there were a few problems but everything came out fine. "We were all shaking like fools," he said. "I went to clamp the cord but I couldn't because my hands were shaking."
Doan said he could have handled a trauma because he was use to dealing with a trauma, but it was his first time for a live birth in the ambulance.
The ambulance met up with the paramedics from Multi-Township Emergency Medical Service at the church in Palestine. The mother and baby were examined and then transported on to Kosciusko Community Hospital.
"We all met with them about two weeks after they got home," Doan said. The ambulance crew presented Aaron with an outfit, an emergency medical technician patch and a card. The Turners gave the EMS a card and thanked them continuously.
"Hopefully, we'll be seeing him for many, many years to come," Doan said.
He said EMTs receive training for such emergencies but in his 10 years of being an EMT, they were skills he never had to use before.
"Fortunately, we didn't have any major problems that needed to be corrected," he said.
Aaron is the Turner's third child.
