Helping a frantic mother help her infant son start breathing not just on one occasion but twice has netted an Oneida County 9-1-1 telecommunicator a national award.
A New Jersey- based software company, NICE, has named Nicole Lea as National Telecommunicator of the Year.
Lea says in the fall of 2014 a mother called for help. Her infant had stopped breathing. So she was giving CPR instruction while her dispatch partner was paging out officers. Several months later the same mother called 9-1-1 because the infant had stopped breathing again. Lea happened to be the same dispatcher who answered the second call and the same partner dispatched ambulances.
"....when the phone rings and we get to answer "Oneida 9-1-1", there's a lot of screaming, 'Oh my God, my child has stopped breathing', and right away you go into work mode, your going to save this child by any means possible. We are the first responder on the scene...."
Lea says she has not talked to the mother again, and she says that often happens, similar to beginning a book and never reading the end of the book. Lea says the best part of the job is she gets to help people during their worst time.
