A Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Transit bus boarded an extra passenger on Tuesday morning after a Lake County sheriff’s deputy and two Tribal Clinic workers in Elmo helped deliver a healthy baby boy on the side of the road.
Shortly after 9 a.m. on July 15, dispatch received a 911 call about a woman in her 30s who had gone into labor while riding the tribal transit bus in Elmo, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
A few minutes after the call, Deputy Scott Sciaretta arrived on the scene to find that the baby was already on his way, legs first. With the help of a passenger, Gigi Cave, Sciarette began to deliver the baby, while Lake County Dispatchers radioed instructions on how to birth a child. Meanwhile, two staff members from the Tribal Clinic, Lee Anna Muzquiz and Jennifer Morigeau, arrived and helped turn the baby and complete the delivery.
As the baby was delivered, an ambulance arrived to take mother and child to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Polson.