Rachel picked him up, but he continued to struggle to breathe. Rachel ran over to the phone and dialed 911. “Come quickly my baby can’t breathe. Hurry please.”
The operator stayed on the line until the ambulance arrived. Within minutes police cars, fire trucks, and an ambulance were outside and people were running toward the house. The paramedics let Rachel ride to the hospital with Dakota. They could see she was very distraught and in no shape to drive. “Ma’am is there someone you would like me to call for you, a husband, parent, friend? Someone that could be with you?”
“No, I just need my baby to be okay. Please just save my baby!” Rachel exclaimed. The paramedics helped her into the ambulance and sped to the hospital with lights and sirens blaring. The one paramedic was giving him some medicine to breathe in while the other called the doctor at the hospital to let him know they were on there way. They arrived at the hospital in no time at all.
Rachel was impressed at how quickly the staff came to assist the paramedics. There were two nurses, a respiratory therapist, a nursing assistant and a doctor all in the room within a matter of seconds. One of the nurses came over to Rachel and put a hand on her shoulder. “Hi, my name is Kennedy and I am one of the nurses. I need to get some information from you so we can help your son. Let’s step over here out of the way while I ask you a few questions.” The nurse led her to the other side of the examination room, but Rachel could still see what was going on while answering the nurse’s questions.
“Let’s start with the baby’s name and birth date.”
“His name is Dakota James Spielbauer. He was born October 5th.” Rachel answered. Her heart was racing. She was running on autopilot trying to answer the nurse’s questions.
“Is Dakota on any medications?”
“No, other then the Ibuprofen I gave him earlier. He’s teething and that seems to help more then anything else. He’s had it several times and never had a problem before. Do you think he’s having an allergic reaction to the medicine?” Rachel asked.
“I don’t know anything yet. Does he have any allergies that you know of?”
“Not that we know of.” Rachel was frustrated. There were so many people in the way she couldn’t see what they were doing.
“I know you want to go to your son ma’am. We are almost finished. Does he have any medical conditions we should know about?”
“No, he’s never even had a cold yet. He has been very healthy. We were just watching television on a blanket on the floor when all of a sudden he couldn’t breathe. I was so scared I just didn’t know what to do.” Rachel sobbed. Her emotions got the best of her. She tried to stay strong for Dakota, but she had never felt so scared in her life. She could still picture her little boy turning blue, barely able to get any air.
Kennedy brought her a chair so she could sit down. She could see how upset Rachel was. “Please have a seat Mrs. Spielbauer. I’ll go and get you a glass of water.”
Rachel could barely speak.