JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. –
Editor's Note: The names of individuals in this article have been withheld for security purposes.
At 4:30 p.m., personnel at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, dispersed from their workplaces and scurried to their cars. As U.S. Air Force Airmen made their trek to respective destinations, an anxious husband tapped his finger on the steering wheel of his car, careful not to concern his wife.
"I'm catching every red light," he thought to himself. "We're so close."
As the husband obsessed over the gleaming red light before him, his wife, Katie, sat in the passenger seat, attempting to regulate her breathing and withstand the pain she endured every few minutes.
At nearly 40 weeks pregnant, Katie began active labor. She tried her hardest not to push during what seemed to take a lifetime to get to USAF Hospital Langley.
They barely missed the flurry of personnel leaving for the day when they pulled into the hospital parking lot. Luckily, a few Airmen stayed at work for a little longer than usual.
"Have a good evening, I'll see you in the morning," Staff Sgt. Lee Ford, 633rd MDSS outpatient noncommissioned officer in charge, said to a coworker.
Ford walked out of the hospital doors and was on his way to the gym when he heard a voice call for help.
"I need a wheelchair!" a woman exclaimed from somewhere in the sea of cars.
Ford rushed back into the hospital, then to the area from where he heard the woman call, now with a wheel chair in tow.
The wife cried out in agony.
"It's going to be alright," said Lynette Lyles, 633rd Medical Support Squadron unit deployment manager, who had nearly driven by when she saw the couple in distress. "Just breathe; we'll help you get in the chair."
Ford and Lyles hastily but cautiously assisted Katie into the wheelchair.
"The baby's coming out, I can't hold on any longer," Katie bellowed while beads of sweat rolled down her face.
The emotional triad escorted Katie and newborn baby, Alexander, into the hospital and up to labor and delivery where a team of Airmen were prepared to ensure they were healthy.
"The staff was just awesome and very professional," the husband said. "They were calm, as much as you can be in that situation, so that really helped."
The storm settled and Katie and her husband looked amorously at their new baby, forgetting about the chaotic day they bore.
"I don't think anyone's really ready for a situation like that," Ford said when thinking back on the experience. "Ultimately we just had to do what we could at that moment to get the patient taken care of. Anyone here at the 633rd would have done exactly what we had done."
Agreeing with Ford's account, Lyles, a retired Airman, said sometimes Airmen get bogged down with annual Self Aid and Buddy Care training, but it's important to take the preparation seriously.
"You'll never know what training you'll need," she said. "As an admin, I'll never have the same training as a med tech or a provider would have for that situation, but having some training and being able to help [was reassuring]."
In the end, the baby was healthy and resting in his mother's arms; Lyles was off to tell her daughter about what she just did; and Ford continued on his way to the gym.
"I went to the gym, all these people were around me with all their different days going on and I just thought, 'If only you knew,'" Ford said.