Left to right: Christopher Washington, MD; Karli Glatfelter, certified medical assistant; and Kate Keyser, RN.
It was a typical Saturday at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Urgent Care Norlanco. The staff was busy with a steady flow of patients when a man approached the desk and announced his wife was about to have a baby in the backseat of their van, parked in the lot out front.
On the way to deliver their third child, the couple realized they would not make it to their destination on time and turned to the Urgent Care for help.
Urgent Care physician Christopher M. Washington, MD was on duty and rushed to the woman to assess her condition. She was in active labor and the baby was crowning. Washington jumped into action and safely delivered her baby, a 7 lb, 9 oz boy. Assisting him were certified medical assistant Monifah (Mo) Cooper, pharmacy technician Mark Berkihiser, and nurse Kaitlyn (Kate) Keyser, RN.
“Mark, Mo and Kate were a huge help getting supplies from the building – blankets, oxygen, clamps, scissors, towels, gloves and more – and bringing them out to me. Kate helped take care of the baby while we were getting Mom out of the car and into the ambulance,” said Washington.
While the baby required supplemental blow-by oxygen (a contactless method), both mom and baby appeared to be doing well as they were handed off by the Norlanco team to EMS workers for further care and transport to LG Health’s Women & Babies Hospital.
Washington also commended physician assistant Nick Lazorka, X-ray technician Christina Elliott, and certified medical assistant Karolina (Karli) Glatfelter for taking care of the other Urgent Care patients inside.
Amanda C. Harrison, MHA, director of operations for Urgent Care at LG Health, said, “I was certainly surprised by the incident, but not at all surprised at how our Urgent Care team worked together. When something like this happens, it really highlights the teamwork that goes on.”
Harrison added that the event sparked an idea – “Urgent Care leadership and the director of nursing now have grab-and-go delivery supply kits for each facility in case this happens again,” she said.