Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, December 19, 1994 TAG: 9412200046
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: GORDONSVILLE LENGTH: Short
The baby girl, weighing less than 4 pounds, was born Friday at home, seven weeks early and without benefit of medical assistance.
But Noelle and her mother, Terry, and father, Stanley, got a big assist from Gordonsville Police Chief John Breeden. The chief heard dispatchers frantically trying to get a rescue squad to the Stafford home.
Breeden grabbed a pair of rubber gloves and headed out.
``When I got there, the mom just had the baby in her hands and was shaking it, trying to make it breathe,'' he said. ``It took me a second to recover from that.''
Breeden placed the baby in the palm of his hand and began breathing into her mouth. There was no reaction after the first breath; a gurgle after the second; and after the third:
``The arms and legs shot out,'' Breeden said. ``And then she started reacting.''
As the baby's color began to change, Barbara Mosticone of the Orange County Rescue Squad arrived. She cleared the infant's airway of mucus.
She asked Terry Stafford whether her daughter had a name, and suggested the name Noelle because the Christmas season is so near.
``I looked down and called her Noelle, and her little eyes opened - she had the tiniest eyes - and she grasped my finger,'' she said.
Mother and daughter were taken to the University of Virginia Hospital, where Noelle was placed in intensive care. She faces surgery today to repair a heart defect.
by CNB