‘NICU on wheels’: Columbia mother praises health program after giving birth while driving to hospital

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - A Columbia mother is praising EMS workers and a medical program during National EMS Week after she gave birth to her premature baby while walking out to her car.

“My water broke and she came so quick,” said Tara Sumter, a new mom.

Sumter was only 28 weeks into her pregnancy. Her baby, Mecca, was the size of a head of lettuce. After her water broke, her older daughter tried to get her to the closest hospital as quickly as she could, but it was too late.

“By the time we got to the truck, she was already starting to come out. So, I was trying to hold her there. At the same time, I’m just praying and hoping that she was going to be okay,” she said.

She was okay. Partly because of Prisma Health’s Neonatal Transport Program.

The Neonatal transport is manned by several people including EMTs.(WIS)

“We’re the mobile NICU on wheels,” said Elizabeth Easler, a Prisma NICU Transport nurse.

The “NICU on wheels” transported Mecca to Prisma Health Children’s Hospital so she could get the specialized care she needed. The neonatal transport program is manned by respiratory specialists, ed nurses and EMTs who are staffed 24 hours a day, waiting for their next call to save a little human’s life.

“The field of neonatal medicine has worked hard over decades to get to this point where a 28-weeker is not as scary as it used to be. We can bring them back to Richland, and we can grow them until their term, essentially,” Easler said.

The medical service is something that Sumter is now calling a blessing.

“I just can’t really put it into words to be honest, but just to have people like them around is a blessing,” she said.

Baby Mecca is just one of nearly 200 babies that have been transported through the program this year alone. Last year, there were 491 neonatal transports.