Stacey Everhart, RN, holds the baby she helped save who is now named after her.
When it comes to a mother giving birth to her baby there’s already plenty of drama involved even when all goes according to plan. Things didn’t go according to plan when Chantasia Bass went to have her baby recently at Bear River Hospital. In fact, if it hadn’t been for the timely appearance of a superhero, she could have lost her child.
When Blake Taylor, DO, visited with Chantasia and broke her water to prepare her to give birth, all was going according to plan. But seconds after he left, Stacey Everhart, RN, saw the baby’s heart rate drop.
Stacey, who is now manager of labor and delivery, realized something was happening that she’d never seen before during birth. With the help of Michelle Hinck, RN, they discovered the baby’s umbilical cord was coming out first. It was prolapsed or being pinched by the baby’s head. Michelle helped Stacey be sure the right people, including Dr. Taylor, were on their way to help. Chantasia needed an immediate c-section or the baby would likely die.
Blake Taylor, DO, helped do an emergency c-section once it was discovered the umbilical cord was coming out first.
Stacey, who is now manager of labor and delivery, realized something was happening that she’d never seen before during birth. With the help of Michelle Hinck, RN, they discovered the baby’s umbilical cord was coming out first. It was prolapsed or being pinched by the baby’s head. Michelle helped Stacey be sure the right people, including Dr. Taylor, were on their way to help. Chantasia needed an immediate c-section or the baby would likely die.
“She called in several nurses and they started ripping cords out of the wall and the whole time Stacey’s just sitting there on the bed trying to calm me down,” says Chantasia. “She was saying, ‘The umbilical cord is trying to come out first. I’ve got to hold on to it. I know it hurts. But it’s cutting off his oxygen supply.’ She was pushing his head up and holding on to the umbilical cord.”
Stacey jumped up on the bed and reached in to keep the baby’s head off of the cord, a tricky maneuver that required the use of two hands.
“The only thing that was keeping the baby alive was me keeping the baby off the cord,” Stacey says. “When I was riding on the hospital bed all the way to the OR, I was writing my resignation letter in my head because it was very stressful and I was worried the baby was going to die.”
It just so happened that an OR team was just wrapping up from doing a previous procedure and they were ready to come to Chantasia’s aid, Dr. Taylor says.
He says from the time they arrived in the operating room until the time the baby was out was 45 seconds. He credits Jon Gardner, MD, who also responded to help, with playing a key role as they performed surgery to save the infant. The baby was born six minutes after the problem was discovered, he says.
Dr. Taylor says he’d heard about such births and saw one when he was in residency, but it was the first time he’d seen it with one of his own patients. He says if Stacey hadn’t spotted the problem and immediately acted, the baby would’ve been about two minutes from dying.
“The fact she was able to spot the problem so quickly and take immediate action to save the infant is incredible,” he says. “The timing was right because just when we needed help to do the emergency c-section the right team was in place to help.”
The infant who was saved now has a name: Jasiah Edward Stacey Lamarr Bass. His parents, Chantasia, and her wife, Jasmin Bass, named him after Stacey.
“I couldn’t have asked for better nurse to be there,” Chantasia says. “I’m beyond grateful. There’s nothing I can say and nothing I can do to ever repay her. We’re eternally grateful for Stacey. All superheroes don’t wear capes.”