Rachel Ballard
May 2020
Rachel
Ballard
,
RN
OB
SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital - Oklahoma City
This nomination was from a local news station (KFOR) story posted online:
Right place, right time - it's something we hear often, but it's not often that the right place is thousands of miles from home and that right time is the result of a typhoon. Two nurses with Oklahoma ties saved the life of a mother and baby on the streets of Manila. Just beginning a nursing mission trip to islands in the Philippines, Rachel Ballard and another nurse found themselves stuck in Manila after a deadly typhoon ravaged parts of the country.
"We were there an extra day and that's when the whole thing happened at the hotel," one nurse said. 'The whole thing' began when the nurses - specializing in labor and delivery - noticed a pregnant woman screaming outside of the hotel. "We could kind of recognize that scream," said Ballard. "She was ready to have her baby." But after she had the baby - silence. The little girl was blue - lifeless on the ground in the streets.
"So, we got a little worried and that's when we kind of intervened," the other nurse said. "We asked the police officers if we could help and they were like yeah of course!" They put the skills they learned in the College of Nursing at the OU Health Sciences Center to work, getting the baby to breathe again. "Once she could hear the baby cry and everyone kind of made that relief sound," said Ballard.
With makeshift tools security found for them - a sewing string and children's training scissors - the nurses were able to cut and tie the cord. Next, they helped the mother deliver the placenta. Eventually, the ambulance arrived. Two lives saved, thanks to the kindness of strangers from a country far away. The other nurse said, "We just knew we kind of needed to step in,".
Rachel currently works at St Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City. The mission trip was through Tulsa-based non-profit, Power of a Nickel. Eventually, they were able to fly to another island in the Philippines to continue their work.
Right place, right time - it's something we hear often, but it's not often that the right place is thousands of miles from home and that right time is the result of a typhoon. Two nurses with Oklahoma ties saved the life of a mother and baby on the streets of Manila. Just beginning a nursing mission trip to islands in the Philippines, Rachel Ballard and another nurse found themselves stuck in Manila after a deadly typhoon ravaged parts of the country.
"We were there an extra day and that's when the whole thing happened at the hotel," one nurse said. 'The whole thing' began when the nurses - specializing in labor and delivery - noticed a pregnant woman screaming outside of the hotel. "We could kind of recognize that scream," said Ballard. "She was ready to have her baby." But after she had the baby - silence. The little girl was blue - lifeless on the ground in the streets.
"So, we got a little worried and that's when we kind of intervened," the other nurse said. "We asked the police officers if we could help and they were like yeah of course!" They put the skills they learned in the College of Nursing at the OU Health Sciences Center to work, getting the baby to breathe again. "Once she could hear the baby cry and everyone kind of made that relief sound," said Ballard.
With makeshift tools security found for them - a sewing string and children's training scissors - the nurses were able to cut and tie the cord. Next, they helped the mother deliver the placenta. Eventually, the ambulance arrived. Two lives saved, thanks to the kindness of strangers from a country far away. The other nurse said, "We just knew we kind of needed to step in,".
Rachel currently works at St Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City. The mission trip was through Tulsa-based non-profit, Power of a Nickel. Eventually, they were able to fly to another island in the Philippines to continue their work.