Thursday, May 25, 2006 10:01 PM CDT
Charleston postal worker helps with birth in his car
By ROB STROUD, Staff Writer
CHARLESTON -- Richard Lucas helps deliver mail every day as a Charleston Post Office employee, but he helped deliver an entirely different kind of parcel on Mother’s Day.
The Villa Grove resident assisted with the delivery of a baby on May 14 in the back seat of his car along Illinois Route 130, north of Philo. Lucas and his family had been taking the expectant mother to the hospital when her delivery progressed even faster than Lucas’ car.
Lucas said he and his wife, Sonna, had been keeping in close contact with her son, Andrew Kiser, and her son’s fiancee, Crystal Wells, of Villa Grove as her pregnancy neared its conclusion.
They received a telephone call from Kiser at approximately 3 a.m. May 14 after it became apparent Wells had gone into labor, Lucas said. Kiser asked if they could take him, his fiancee, and their 3-year-old son Jairus to Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana.
“We just helped them in the car and off we went,” Lucas said of their hurried trip to Champaign County.
Lucas said he was “zipping up” Route 130 when Wells cried out, “I can’t hold him anymore.” Lucas said his stepson used a cellular phone to call 911, and the operator advised them to pull over and tend to Wells as an ambulance rushed to the scene.
Taking over on the cell phone, Lucas relayed instructions from the 911 operator to his stepson and wife. However, he said they seemed to move instinctively to handle many of the tasks.
Lucas said his stepson reached over the back seat and helped guide the newborn into the world, then cleared the baby’s airways. He said his wife helped wrap her new grandchild in clean linens she brought from home. Lucas said they used one of his shoe laces to tie off the baby’s umbilical cord.
An ambulance crew then arrived to take Wells and the baby to the hospital, with the family close behind. Lucas said the baby and mother proved to be in great condition. He said they were visited at the hospital by many nurses and orderlies who had heard about the baby being born in the car.
“The news got around fast,” Lucas said.
The baby, named Jonathan Andrew Kiser, was born weighing 7 pounds, 14 ounces and measuring 19 inches long. Lucas said he has enjoyed sharing the story about his grandson’s birth, adding his family of co-workers at the Charleston Post Office have shared in his excitement.
“I am the proud grandpa,” Lucas said.
Contact Rob Stroud at rstroud@jg-tc.com or 348-5734.
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Fxiccxypxc wrote on May 10, 2007 11:31 AM: