IONIA COUNTY, Mich. — In a 911 dispatch center, the workers never know what will be on the other end of each phone call.
The day after Christmas, a woman frantically called. Ashley Kawalec answered.
"I answered the phone and grandma was frantic saying, 'My daughter’s having a baby!'" Kawalec said.
At the time, the Ionia County dispatch center had already sent out all available ambulances, during what she described as a busy day for medical calls. The mom on the other end was not going to make it to the hospital before the babies arrived.
"I went right to my training and your mind goes blank and your training takes over," Kawalec said.
Just less than a minute later, Kawalec heard the baby cry.
"Then, all of a sudden, she said something about babies," Kawalec said, emphasizing the plural. "I said, 'Oh my gosh, is it twins?'"
No time to rest, Kawalec went back to the training book and walked the mother and grandmother through the birth of the second twin. The baby was born about 10 minutes later.
"I heard the grandma scream, 'We’re upstairs we’re upstairs,'" Kawalec said. "Somebody’s there. Somebody's there now. I stayed on the phone until I could tell they were in the room with her and then I congratulated her. Got of the phone and went [exhales deeply]."
We do not know the identity of the mother or babies, but Kawalec said she has learned they are all doing well.
"One of the frustrating things about being in dispatch is we hang up the call and then we don’t know what’s happening," Kawalec said. "You’re just holding your breath to make sure they say transporting to the hospital. I was just glad I was there to help them and take grandma from a frantic state to a little calmer. We deal with a lot of really traumatic, high stress awful things that happen. So, when we get a call like this, it’s more of an excited stress."
Kawalec said she wanted the mother to know "she did amazing."
After the call, Kawalec said she went back to work as usual, answering the next phone call.
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