911 call helps save boy
A dispatcher talks a panicked mother through CPR.
By MICHAEL A. SCARCELLA
BRADENTON -- Jaime Melser got the 911 call at 6:47 p.m. A 6-month-old boy's lips were blue. He wasn't breathing, and the young mother on the other end needed help.
"Is he conscious?" Melser asked, beginning a series of questions to get a grasp of the situation.
"No. He's a little limp," Stacie Eliseo, 27, said.
Over the next nine minutes, Melser directed Eliseo's mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of her son, who authorities said was clinically dead.
The baby now is alive and well.
Melser and Eliseo -- and her son, Maddox, brown-eyed, with chunky cheeks -- were united Wednesday as Manatee County public safety officials praised the work the women did to save a life on Oct. 30.
"I'm not usually a calm person," said Eliseo, puzzled by the poise she showed in her first-ever call to 911. Melser, 25, had assured her several times that paramedics were racing to her. Stay on the line, she said.
An ambulance was dispatched within a minute of the call and arrived eight minutes later.
Maddox was breathing and had begun to cry before paramedics pulled up.
Back in the dispatch center, Melser leaped out of her seat, thrusting her hands in the air when the call ended.
Those are the calls that keep dispatchers going.
An assistant director at a day-care center, Eliseo, who knows CPR but credits Melser's instructions, has no plans to listen to the 911 call.
Maddox, she said, sleeps closer to his mother's bed these days. Doctors could not determine what caused his heart to stop beating.
Manatee County dispatchers fielded more than 36,500 medical 911 calls between October 2005 and late September. Most didn't involve children, and not every call had a happy ending.
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Manatee County 911 dispatcher Jaime Melser spent six minutes helping Stacie Eliseo save her 6-month-old son from death on Oct. 30. Here are edited excerpts from that lifesaving call:
911 (Melser): What's the address of the emergency?
Caller (Eliseo): My baby is not breathing.
911: OK. Are you with him now?
Caller: Yes, he's right here.
911: Is he conscious?
Caller: No, he's a little limp.
911: OK, did you see what happened?
Caller: No, he was fine like 30 minutes ago; he just ate, and he was just sitting here in his swing.
911: OK, I'm sending paramedics to help you now. Stay on the line, and I'll tell you exactly what to do next.
Caller: All right.
911: Listen carefully. Lay the baby flat on his back, on the ground, and remove any pillows. Kneel next to the baby and look in his mouth for any food or vomit. Is there anything in his mouth?
Caller: No, nothing.
911: OK. Now place your hand on the baby's forehead and your other hand under the baby's neck and shoulders, and gently tilt the head back. Put your ear next to his mouth. Can you feel or hear any breathing?
Caller: No.
911: OK. I'm going to tell you how to give mouth to mouth, OK? With the baby's head slightly tilted back, completely cover the baby's mouth and nose with your mouth, then blow two puffs of air into the lungs about one second each -- just enough to make the chest rise with each breath.
Caller: All right.
911: OK, did you feel the air going in and out?
Caller: I did, yes.
911: Listen carefully and I'll tell you how to do chest compressions, OK? Make sure the baby is flat on the back on the ground. Place two fingers on the breast bone and the center of the chest right between the nipples.
Caller: OK.
911: Push down one inch with only your fingers touching the chest.
Caller: All right.
911: Pump the chest hard and fast 30 times, at least twice per second. Let the chest come all the way up between the pumps, and tell me when you're done.
Caller: Help me.
911: OK, do you understand me so far? Are you done with the 30?
Caller: Yeah.
911: OK, all right. With your hand under his neck and shoulders, slightly tilt his head back again. Put your mouth on his nose and mouth, and give two more pumps, and then pump the chest three more times. Make sure your fingers are on the center of the chest, right between the nipples.
Caller: Lips are turning blue. It's not helping.
911: Just keep doing it until they get there, OK? You're doing fine, OK? Two pumps, then 30 pumps, two pumps, then 30 pumps ... and keep doing it till they can take over, OK? Tell me when they're (there), and if anything changes, tell me immediately, OK?
Caller: Are they going to be here soon?
911: Yes, ma'am. I know it feels like it's taking forever. They're coming as fast as they can; don't give up. Keep him going, OK, till the paramedics arrive?
Caller: OK.
911: OK, just keep doing it, OK? Keep repeating the cycle of two pumps, then 30 pumps.
Caller: Oh god, they're coming. I can hear them.
911: Keep doing it till they take over, OK? You're doing a great job. Is anything changing?
Caller: He's starting to take a breath. He's started to cry a little bit. He's just kind of laying there looking at me right now.
911: OK. What is he doing?
Caller: He's just laying here. He's breathing. A little shallow, but he's breathing now. He's opening his eyes now.
911: The paramedics are trying to find your building. They're right outside. I'll stay on the phone with you until they get right with him. Is he breathing normally?
Caller: It seems like he's taking really, really deep breaths ... they're here.
911: Let me know when they're inside with him, OK? You did a great job, OK?
Caller: Thanks.
911: What's your name?
Caller: Stacie.
911: Is that them?
Caller: They're here.
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