Five members of the San Angelo Fire Department were honored this week for their extraordinary actions during a rare and life-threatening emergency involving the birth of a premature infant.
Fire Chief Patrick Brody recognized the firefighters at a city council meeting for their response to a 911 call on Aug. 10, when dispatchers reported an unconscious infant around 11 a.m. Ladder 1 and Medic 6 crews responded to the scene, where they encountered a situation few emergency responders ever face.
The infant, delivered at just 26 weeks gestation, was born en caul—still entirely enclosed in the amniotic sac—a condition seen in only about 1 in 80,000 births. Chief Brody described the moment as something “most never encounter in their careers.”
The baby had been delivered in a toilet and was described by Brody as “no larger than the palm of a human’s hand.” Despite the grim circumstances, the infant regained a pulse during transport and is now expected to make a full recovery.
“With skill, calm under pressure, and true dedication, Ladder 1 crew carefully removed the infant from the sac and immediately initiated life-saving resuscitations,” said Brody. “Within moments, Medic 6 arrived to continue the support and the effort.
Working together with seamless coordination, the team provided CPR and supplemental oxygen and rapidly transported the infant to the Emergency Department without delay.”
“It is difficult to overstate the gravity of this day—without the rapid expert care delivered by these responders, the outcome could have been much more tragically different,” Brody said. “Instead, because of their dedication and their training, a life was saved.”
To recognize their actions, Brody presented the firefighters with The San Angelo Fire Department Life Saving Award, calling it “the highest respect in administration.”
“These efforts were nothing short of miraculous,” he added.
While extraordinarily rare, births where the infant is still enclosed in the amniotic sac are hardly ever seen—even more so in the field, where labor and delivery calls make up only a small fraction of EMS responses. A 2021 study published in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth found that obstetric events account for just one-half to 1 percent of EMS calls nationwide.
Another significant study published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine in Feb. 2025 found that babies born at 26 weeks have a 77-percent perinatal survival rate, with 80.3 percent surviving without significant neurological impairment.
The firefighters honored for their roles were:
- Captain CJ Naylor
- Engineer Darin Wright
- Firefighter McShane Mathews
- Firefighter Anthony Gossett
- Firefighter Daniel Coder
