Medical dispatcher's promptness helps safe delivery of baby boy at home

Mahmoud Osman, a medical dispatcher with Hamad Medical Corporation's (HMC) Ambulance Service, is credited with facilitating safe delivery of a baby at home in a seemingly complicated case of pregnancy by providing proper guidance to the panicky husband.

At 10.04am on September 10, 2015, Mahmoud received a '999' emergency call from a man asking for an ambulance to come to his nine-month pregnant wife who was about to deliver their baby.

Mahmoud is part of the Medical Dispatch service that handles incoming calls for emergency medical assistance from the public or other agencies. Dispatchers are required to identify the nature of the request, prioritise its severity, dispatch the necessary resources and provide dispatch life support when appropriate.

After doing the necessary address verification and sending the appropriate ambulance team, Mahmoud continued to talk to the man, asking for a full description of the situation.

"It quickly became clear to me that this case was complicated. Through the description that the man was giving to me, I identified that this was a breach presentation, meaning the baby's buttocks, rather than head, were appearing first," explained Mahmoud.

It is noteworthy that this type of delivery is potentially dangerous for both the mother and baby and required Mahmoud's quick thinking.

Mahmoud relied on his training and followed the Dispatch Life Support Protocols to handle the case. Taking the father through the Medical Priority Dispatch System, Mahmoud began instructing the caller on how to deliver the baby safely. However, Mahmoud soon identified another complication to this delivery.

"While I was providing reassurance to the father and instructing him, it became apparent that there was another complication. The father described to me how the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby's neck, raising the risk of choking."

Mahmoud remained calm and described clearly to the father exactly what he needed to do to protect the baby and deliver him safely.

"I was so happy when I finally heard the sound of the baby crying. This was when I knew he had been delivered safely. As a team, we respond to thousands of emergency calls every week and it’s calls like this that really make me realise the importance of the job we do. It's fantastic that everything came together and we achieved the perfect outcome for the mother, father and baby," Mahmoud explained.

Mahmoud's actions were recognised at the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch Navigator Conference, where he was named as the Medical Dispatcher of the Year for his excellence in handling emergency calls.

Mahmoud is part of the highly trained medical dispatch team within the Ambulance Service's Medical Communication Center.

Courtesy: Qatar-tribune.com