Dispatcher Helps Police Chief Deliver His Own Baby On I-70 Off-Ramp
GYPSUM, Colo. (CBS4) - A high country dispatcher talked a nervous father-to-be through a roadside delivery, and that father is used to emergencies because he's the local police chief.
Eagle Police Chief Joey Staufer raced his wife to a hospital early Tuesday morning, but when his wife stated having the baby he pulled off Interstate 70 at the Gypsum off-ramp exit and called 911. The voice on the other end of the line was a familiar one.
Dispatcher Kelly Klein handles all types of calls.
"They're all across the boards, it's never really a normal day working in a 911 center," Klein said.
But the call he answered Tuesday morning won't be one he will soon forget.
"Hey, it's Joey Staufer (wife screaming in the background) … It looks like we're not going to make it to the hospital," Staufer told Klein during the 911 call. "Could we get some ambulances to meet me at the firehouse?"
In the darkness along Interstate 70, Staufer was about to deliver a baby.
"It was definitely nerve racking, tensions were running high," Klein said. "I never experienced delivering a baby over the phone like that."
Klein kept calm even though he knew the father-to-be. He coached the police chief through the entire delivery as emergency crews raced to the area.
"I am going to talk you through this. Is there any serious bleeding?" Klein asked Staufer.
"(Baby crying) … okay, we have a baby," Staufer said.
"Is it out?" Klein asked.
"Yup, I've got her head. She's crying a little bit," Staufer replied.
The chief his wife and brand new healthy baby girl are resting at Valley View Hospital after a phone call the 911 dispatcher is proud he was a part of.
"You actually don't see that every day, anywhere, I would say," Klein said.
There's no name yet for the baby, but CBS4 learned mom passed on Gypsum, the exit name where they ended up having the baby.
