Star of Life Awards presented to Stoddard County Ambulance employees

The ice storm created many difficulties for area residents, some of which were life threatening. Still, the emergency response to a couple who were trying to get to a Cape Girardeau hospital for the birth of a child was one of the more inspiring stories.

April and Jason Womble were at the hospital in Cape Girardeau and debated on whether to spend the night or return to their Wappapello home for one more night with Peyton, their four-year-old son who was having a birthday. They went home. The ice storm that had started late in the afternoon had worsened.

"Everything was fine. We started to go to bed and I started to cough and my water broke," she said. "We jumped in the car and took off, pretty much. But we weren't going fast. We live on Highway Z. It's not a main road, and it was pretty slick."

She was half out of her mind with the increasing contractions, half listening to her husband's phone conversations. But she remembers the speed limit in Advance being 30 miles an hour. And Jason, an independent truck driver, was driving as fast as he safely could on the icy road.

Critical Care Paramedic Amy Earls and EMT Steven Cummins responded to the call. They picked up the couple and immediately began the trip to Cape.

Cummins drove and voices over the ambulance radio gave frequent updates on the poor road conditions, April Womble said.

"I mean my contractions -- it seemed like I'd take a breath and have another one," April Womble said. "All I wanted was some pain medication, and of course they can't give that at that point."

The point they were at, when Cummins pulled the ambulance to the side of the road, was imminent birth.

After the paramedics checked, they decided they could go a little farther, April Womble said.

But before the ambulance could finish pulling over a second time on Highway 25, Earls was helping the newest Womble, a 6-pound, 2-ounce boy, into the world. The time: 9:17 p.m.

The second crew to be honored with a Star of Life Award was Paramedic Sam Pearson and EMT Joshua Sailer. The couple responded to an emerency call at Puxico in September, where they found a man suffering cardiovascular problems. AirEvac was contacted and the ambulance was en route to the helipad at the Puxico Ambulance Station when the patient's heart stopped. Emergency CPR, defibrulation and other EMS protocol by the SCAD employees got the heart going again. The man was transported to the hospital and recovered. He is now doing well, according to the ambulance workers.

Critical Care Paramedic Chuck Kasting, who is also assistant manager at SCAD, and Tyler Juden responded to a call in Dexter in early December. They were called to Missouri Southern Healthcare to transport a patient with cardiovascular problems. They left for Southeast Hospital in Cape Girardeau, but shorty after leaving Dexter the patient suffered cardiac arrest.

Kasting and Juden were able to get the heart started using defribrulation and the ambulance diverted to Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston where the patient was stabilized. The trip continued to Southeast Hospital and the patient recovered and returned home. The patient is doing well and back at home, according to Kasting.

(Peg McNichol of the Southeast Missourian contributed to this report.)