A BUTLER mother and four-month-old baby have been reunited with a paramedic who helped in his early arrival.
Jess Scott recently commended paramedic Kelly Deetlefs, who attended on January 13 when Ms Scott was 37 weeks pregnant with her fourth child after three “textbook” births.
“It was really sudden,” she said.
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READ NOW“I was just sitting at the table, having a cup of tea – I thought my waters broke.”
Ms Scott said her partner Steve Jameson and a friend were there and soon realised she was bleeding and called an ambulance.
The paramedics diagnosed Ms Scott with a placental abruption and took her to Joondalup Health Campus.
She had an emergency c-section to deliver her son Memphis Jameson-Scott less than half an hour after the ambulance arrived at their home.
Ms Scott said they had originally been going to King Edward Memorial Hospital, and she didn’t think her son would have made it if they had not diverted to Joondalup.
“He had to be resuscitated; he was floppy,” she said.
Memphis was taken to Princess Margaret Hospital for five days before returning to JHC’s neonatal intensive care unit for another three.
Although he is fine now, he will have follow-up checks for the next two years to monitor effects of the traumatic birth.
“He is doing really well; he is such a good little boy,” Ms Scott said.
“He has got a bit of weak muscle tone down one side of his body.”
Ms Scott said she wanted to thank the paramedic for staying with her and recently arranged with St John Ambulance for Ms Deetlefs to meet her son.
“She went above and beyond what she had to do,” she said.
“She was really good at reassuring me – I was really worried.”
The ambulance crew from Merriwa included paramedic John Taylor, who is now working in Albany.
Placental abruption affects about one per cent of pregnancies and involved the placenta detaching from the uterus wall, either partly or totally.
It can cause bleeding in the mother and affect the unborn baby’s supply of oxygen and nutrients.
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