Kankakee dispatcher plays role of midwife

Zac Richey wasn't even supposed to be at work Tuesday.

But another emergency dispatcher for the Kankakee County Communications Center, or KanComm, called off and the 22-year-old Kankakee resident settled in for the evening shift around 5 p.m.

A little more than three hours later, he would be helping deliver a baby.

Earlier in the day, Dan Hall, a Kankakee County sheriff's deputy, was still on shift when he called his wife, Kim, who was due to give birth to the couple's second child on Jan. 5. Everything was OK, she said.

But by the time Dan made a second call hours later, things had changed.

"I think we're going to have a baby tonight," Dan recalled his wife saying. He rushed home and started packing the truck. "We were on our way to the hospital," Dan said. "We just didn't get there."

That's when he dialed 911 and Richey responded.

"It didn't sound like labor was imminent," Richey said. But when Dan said he could see the baby's head, Richey grabbed the Emergency Medical Dispatcher manual and started giving instructions over the phone.

Make sure you cradle the head and shoulders, but don't pull.

Instruct your wife to breathe.

Wipe the baby's eyes and nose.

"And then," Richey said, "he let me know it was a baby girl." It took three minutes.

At 8:28 p.m. Melaina Hall was born.

"It was an amazing gift," Dan said.

Richey couldn't agree more.

"Dealing with all the bad, you get the good," he said, of emergency dispatching. "[And] it makes everything worth it."