NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — When a 911 call came in saying a woman in Nashville was experiencing sudden labor, emergency operator Kaitlyn Kramer says her training kicked in as she successfully coached the expectant mom and bystanders through delivering a healthy baby boy.
Audio of the July 7 call reveals Kramer's calm voice guiding the process even as the voices on the other end grew frantic as the mother's water broke and the baby's head started crowning.
Kramer is a training officer for Nashville's Department of Emergency Communications.
“Whatever the call comes in, you have to be able to maintain control," Kramer said, adding that she had to remember to stay calm herself.
“We're going to do this together,” Kramer told a friend of the mother's over the phone. Moments later, the caller is yelling with excitement that the baby arrived but mentioned that the cord was wrapped around his neck.
Kramer said the bystanders were able to free the baby and soon enough, Kramer could hear his first wails over the phone.
“When I think of a baby being first born, the biggest thing for me is I want to hear them cry," said Kramer. “And he did that on his own.”
The whole call lasted about eight minutes before the ambulance arrived and Kramer got to congratulate the mother and bystanders on a job well done. The family did not respond to a request for an interview.
“I think my favorite part about this whole situation was there was also another younger child in the room, maybe between the ages of seven and 10 years old," Kramer said "She started talking to the baby, welcoming him to the world. And that absolutely just melted my heart.”
Kramer said this is the second time she has helped during a delivery over the 911 hotline.
“We get a lot of sad here. Our job is hard," Kramer said. "This is one of the reasons that remind me that what I do is important ... it just it makes me happy to do what I do.”
This image provided by the Nashville Department of Emergency Communications of Emergency, show dispatcher Kaitlyn Kramer, who helped a mother over the phone as she gave birth at home after suddenly going into labor on July 7, 2024. (Nashville Department of Emergency Communications of Emergency via AP)
MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — Germany on Saturday was still in shock and struggling to understand the suspect behind the attack in the city of Magdeburg.
Identified by local media as 50-year-old Taleb A., a psychiatry and psychotherapy specialist, authorities said he has been living in Germany for two decades. He was arrested on site after plowing a black BMW into a Christmas market crowded with holiday shoppers Friday evening, killing at least five people and wounding about 200 others.
Prominent German terrorism expert Peter Neumann posted on X that he had yet to come across a suspect in an act of mass violence with that profile.
Taleb’s X account is filled with tweets and retweets focusing on anti-Islam themes and criticism of the religion while sharing congratulatory notes to Muslims who left the faith. He also described himself as a former Muslim.
He was critical of German authorities, saying they had failed to do enough to combat the “Islamism of Europe.”
He has also voiced support for the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Some described Taleb as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland. Recently, he seemed focused on his theory that German authorities have been targeting Saudi asylum seekers.
Neumann, the terrorism expert, wrote: “After 25 years in this ‘business’ you think nothing could surprise you anymore. But a 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim who lives in East Germany, loves the AfD and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance towards Islamists — that really wasn’t on my radar."
On Saturday, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told reporters: “At this point, we can only say for sure that the perpetrator was evidently Islamophobic – we can confirm that. Everything else is a matter for further investigation and we have to wait.”
A German-based organization called Athiest Refugee Relief said the alleged attacker was not a part of the group and claimed that he made “numerous accusations and claims” against it and former board members, which it said were false.
“We distance ourselves from him in the strongest terms," the group said in a statement on its website, adding that members of Atheist Refugee Relief filed a criminal complaint against him in 2019 following “the most foul slander and verbal attacks."
An image taken from a video shows police officers arresting a suspect after car drove into a crowd at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (TNN/DPA via AP)
A person stands by flowers and candles placed outside St. John's Church near a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
