Fort Fairfield ambulance crew helps woman deliver twins on bathroom floor

FORT FAIRFIELD, Maine — Members of a Fort Fairfield ambulance crew are being called heroes after they helped a woman successfully deliver twins on her bathroom floor seven weeks before her due date.

Paramedic Fred Parsons and EMT Intermediate Matt McPherson were on duty at The Aroostook Medical Center’s Crown Ambulance Base in Fort Fairfield when the dispatch call came in just after 7 p.m. Thursday. The pair headed for the Fort Fairfield home, according to Jason Parent, a spokesman for The Aroostook Medical Center in Presque Isle.

When the ambulance arrived, an off-duty Fort Fairfield police officer who was the first on the scene directed the crew to a second-floor bathroom, where the mother, whose name Parent did not disclose, was experiencing labor pains and found herself delivering the babies seven weeks earlier than expected.

When Parsons and McPherson got to the bathroom, the first baby had already been born and was on the floor not breathing.

“The mother at that point was in distress and we went into action as a team to care for the newborn, mother and unborn child,” Parsons said, in the statement released by the hospital Friday.

McPherson took care of the first newborn, clamping and cutting the umbilical cord and clearing the baby’s airway so it could breathe on its own, according to the release.

At that point a number of other responders from the Fort Fairfield Fire Department and a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent — also a trained EMT — arrived. A second TAMC Crown Ambulance crew from Presque Isle also was dispatched to the home.

Directing efforts and focusing on the mother, the 54-year-old Parsons, who has 35 years’ experience as a paramedic, next worked with MacPherson on what ended up being a more complicated delivery of the second twin, who was coming out feet first.

“We saw the leg and knew this would be a far more challenging delivery,” said the 32-year-old McPherson. “I remembered what I was taught in school and it all came together.”

Shortly after the second twin was delivered at 7:17 p.m., the TAMC Crown Ambulance crew from Presque Isle consisting of Critical Care Paramedics Ryan Morneault and Travis Norsworthy arrived. That crew then took responsibility for the two newborns, taking them to the emergency room at TAMC’s AR Gould Hospital in Presque Isle.

Parsons and McPherson took care of the mother, taking her to the emergency room at the same hospital where a team of doctors and nurses from both the ER and obstetrical unit were awaiting the arrival of the twins and their mother.

The medical professionals at the hospital, who collectively came together to care for the family, worked to stabilize the patients before moving them to the obstetrical unit, according to the release.

“It’s one of those really unforgettable experiences you can’t describe with words,” McPherson said. “We just wanted to make sure mom and babies were fine and breathing — which we successfully did.”

Parent said Friday that the twins had since been transferred to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. No further information about the condition of the babies and mother was available Friday.