Halifax TV reporter helps woman in labour out of snowbank — and live tweets it
A local Halifax TV reporter went from writing headlines to making headlines when he helped a woman who was in labour and stuck in a snowbank during a blizzard -- all while videotaping and live tweeting the event.
Brett Ruskin, a videojournalist for Global News in Halifax, was covering the snowstorm that was walloping Atlantic Canada Wednesday afternoon.
He had just finished shooting the efforts of emergency service workers as they helped another pregnant woman out of her home, over her snowdrift-covered front yard, and out to a waiting ambulance on the street.
But after the ambulance had gone, and Ruskin was packing up his camera, he heard a woman’s voice screaming for help.
“I didn't see her first, I heard her first,” Ruskin tells As It Happens host Carol Off. “I heard a woman yelling, ‘Help, help! I’m in labour!’”
It was a second pregnant woman, who had just gone into labour and was struggling to get out of a snowbank.
I just crawled through a snowbank to help a pregnant woman yelling: "Help!! I'm in labour." I just called 911.
—@Brett_GlobalRuskin describes seeing the woman in waist-deep snow, “trying to swim through this snow and not getting very far very quickly,” he says. “So I put my camera down and tried to swim my way towards her.”
The woman, a neighbour of the first pregnant woman, was one week overdue and now experiencing contractions nine minutes apart, Ruskin says.
Breathing through a contraction. <a href="http://t.co/NyUHy5yRU4">pic.twitter.com/NyUHy5yRU4</a>
—@Brett_GlobalAfter helping her out of the snowbank, he called 911 -- but because an ambulance had already come to take the first woman, the dispatcher was confused, he says.
And not only that, but the names of the two women were nearly identical: the first woman was Aleesa and the second woman was Lisa.
RECAP: 1st pregnant lady was "Aleesa" 2nd pregnant lady (who I helped) was "Lisa". Lived next door to each other; both went into labour.
—@Brett_GlobalA second ambulance arrived minutes later and took Lisa to hospital, where she delivered a baby later that evening.
As the events were unfolding, Ruskin recorded the events on his videocamera and sent updates on his Twitter account.
“My mind was split between helping this woman who was obviously in need of aid and also trying to report this interesting human interest story,” he says. “That’s kind of what people do these days, live tweeting major events no matter how big or small they might be.”