911 Dispatcher Helps Utah Couple Deliver Baby

— -- A Utah father helped his wife deliver their baby boy in a parking lot, with the guidance of a 911 dispatcher, after the couple realized they weren’t going to make it to the hospital in time.

Mike Anderson and his wife, Kelly, tried to make it to the hospital Monday, but didn’t make it very far and called 911.

“I don’t know what to do,” Mike Anderson said, in audio released Wednesday. “Should I just keep going to the hospital?”

“That’s up to you,” the dispatcher responded. “If you see any part of the baby, I can help you deliver the baby.”

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So Mike Anderson pulled their van over in a gas station parking lot and the dispatcher, identified as Julie Merrell, gave step-by-step instructions.

The Anderson’s two young children were still in the back seat.

The couple worried about so many things that could have gone wrong, but the guidance helped to keep them calm.

Working with a ShamWow towel and a shoelace to tie the baby’s umbilical cord, Anderson delivered 7 pound, 8 ounce Benjamin Norman Anderson as the paramedics pulled up.

Dispatcher Merrell later met the Andersons.

“You did great, by the way,” she told Mike Anderson.

“That was terrible … I’m so glad you talked me through that, because it was the worst thing ever,” he said.

It’s not the first time Merrell gave delivery instructions as a 911 operator, but it’s the first time she has met someone she helped.

“That was amazing,” she said. “Everything went as planned, everyone is happy and healthy.”