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Comment by twodave | Hacker News Reader

I feel this, but in reverse. My son could be dead, but he’s not. He was born on the floor of a trailer park apartment, not breathing. His birth mother’s partner called 911, who dispatched an ambulance. All rescue units for his zone were already busy. An ambulance returning from the nearby hospital to another zone heard the call over the radio and happened to be passing by. The hospital was expecting a DOA, but the paramedics (HEROES) managed to get him breathing again on the way. He’s 11 now, and he is the source of all kinds of trouble and joy. Our home would be very different without him.

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Ex-paramedic here. Happy to here your son is fine.

But either you mistold the story, or the paramedics made a mistake: ambulances are not supposed to transport a dead person - the paramedics are first to resuscitate and stabilize the patient, and only then initiate transportation.

(I understand you may not care, because the outcome of their action incidentally was one you like.)

There is probably some nuance that I am just not aware of. As the adoptive parents it is difficult to get the full account, since we weren't present until a few hours later.

From what I was told, he was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around his throat, and just kind of "fell out" while his birth mother was walking from the bathroom to the living room. I know that part is true, at least, because we saw the apartment floor the next day...

I think probably the paramedics were able to detect some faint vitals upon arrival. Since the birth mother and her partner weren't super reliable or coherent, we weren't really able to piece it all together until we tracked down the two young men who helped save our son's life that night.

You are assuming things twodave didn't say.

He didn't say the baby wasn't breathing when they picked him up. He said the hospital was expecting a DOA - presumably because of the news along the way, before they resuscitated the baby.

Amazing story, Thank you!

I cannot even imagine the horror and the relief. I imagine if I were those paramedics, getting a card or a picture from that kid would make my whole year.

This must have happened within seconds otherwise he must have been breathing almost imperceptibly, right? Otherwise how could his brain still survive?

When the baby passes through the birth canal, the pressure forces any fluids (ideally) out of the baby's lungs, then the contact with air, the temperature drop, and other physiological changes trigger the first breath/inspiration. However, the baby is still attached via umbilical cord to the placenta, and is still receiving good oxygenated blood from mom until the placenta detaches, then the pulse of the cord stops (this can take minutes). But yeah, an apneic baby is a very time sensitive emergency.

Infants don't breathe before birth either. A beating heart would provide umbilical circulation for a few fleeting minutes.

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