Update: Mother Clarissa Bottcher of Nebraska City brought her new twins boys to the Nebraska City Fire Station Tuesday to update paramedic Cathy Blankenship and EMT Mary Johhnson. The two had assisted in the delivery of the twins in the ambulance on July 29.

The twins, who were born about six minutes apart as the ambulance traveled Highway 2 and the J. Sterling Morton Beltway at Nebraska City, are named Ryder Lee James and Rylen Ray Price.

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NEBRASKA CITY – Members of Nebraska City Fire and Rescue received “stork pins” Monday for their role in delivering twin boys on an ambulance.

Paramedic Manager Andrew Snodgrass said Nebraska City Rescue was dispatched to transport the young mother  from CHI Health St. Mary’s to Bryan East in Lincoln around 5:30 a.m. on July 29.

Paramedic Cathy Blankenship and EMT Mary Johnson responded and did not expect any excitement as they got underway.

Near the Dunbar corner, at Highway 2 and Road 46, the first child was born around 6:08 a.m. The second child was born between the west and south intersections of the J. Sterling Morton
Beltway around 6:14  a.m.

Blankenship: “We had every intention of making it to Lincoln, but we barely made it past the weigh station out there. I was hollering at Mary to pull over.

Johnson: “And I did”

Blankenship “Had her get in the back and delivered one. We ended up turning around. We contacted Dr. Vasa and he told us we probably better turn around so we turned around, as we were coming off the off ramp number two came.”

 

The women said training they received at CHI Health St. Mary’s in child birth situations helped that night.

Blankenship, who began medical services with the Dunbar QRT in the 1980s delivered a baby early in her career, but said she never expected to deliver twins in back of unit and moving.

Blankenship: “You really didn’t have time to think about it. We just did it.”

Paramedic manager Andrew Snodgrass said only .8 percent of the 4 million births in the United States each year occur in a pre-hospital environments.  He said it’s even more unexpected in a rural setting with lower call volume and, while there’s no data to support it, he feels delivering twins is exceptionally rare.

 

Snodgrass: “It’s wow. Again because it’s so rare. Thankfully most births, in hospital or out of hospital, are pretty uneventful and don’t require a lot of care and this was pretty much the case here. The first child required no serious intervention, just delivery and minor care. The second child did require a little bit more, but nothing they couldn’t handle. I’m very proud of them for what they did. For being the very first thing, 5:30 in the morning, that’s quite the wake up call.”

Tim Wilson of the state Department of Health and Human Services presented the stork pins.

 

Wilson said the Nebraska City twins are two of about 20 out-of-hospital births in the state so far in 2020.