One evening when I was with the tribal ambulance we received a call of a car wreck with injuries. We responded and had two unconscious people in the car that were hurt really bad. We were working on them to try and get bleeding etc to stop and them packaged on the immobilization device when out of the night we hear a baby crying.
Our hearts stop, where was the crying coming from? We listened very carefully and from down the steep rocky incline from the wreck we could tell the little cry was coming from. The sweat broke out all over our bodies, our heart rate was going so fast, we were sick to our stomach and I don’t think we were hardly breathing as we looked at each other. Neither of us wanted to go over the side for fear of what we were going to find. Our hearts were aching and we both raced down the slope to where the baby was. Our flashlights lighting where we thought the sound was coming from.
There it was, a Native American baby board upside down between two big rocks. We reached down and very carefully pulled the board up and turned it over. It had cracks in it and we were so afraid it would break all the way or move and hurt the baby further. As we turned it over there was a beautiful baby looking at us with big eyes. We did not see anything wrong with him and were afraid to remove the board for fear it would cause further injury. Thinking he is already immobilized on the board we held it gently and started back up through the road and the ambulance.
As we walked up towards the ambulance the baby quit crying, our hearts stopped completely and we shinned the light on the board again almost afraid to look for fear the baby had quit breathing. There he was just looking at us and gave us a big grin as we talked to him.
We loaded mom and dad up on each side of ambulance and my partner jumped in the driver’s seat as I held the infant and off we go to the hospital. Monitoring the baby all the way to the hospital he stayed stable with no changes.
When we arrived at the hospital the emergency room doc x-rayed the baby right in the baby board and found no injuries. We very carefully opened the baby board up. Many pieces were cracked but when we got that baby out we could not find one single cut and he had a couple of small bruises. The baby was perfect.
Mom and Dad lived and had some serious recovery time. Grandma came and got the baby and took him home.
Native Americans built the first seat belt. It amazes me sometimes how much the baby board can take and how secure it holds the baby. They can fall off the couch or a horse and just giggle. They have to be made with certain material and made right to withstand the abuse but they were not made to survive car wrecks or falling down cliffs but for the grace of God this one did.
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