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STANSBURY PARK -- At any Utah hospital, on any day of the week, you can find lots of newborn babies, but you won't find many who came into this world quite like Ren Debbie Pacheco.
It's quiet now inside the Pachecos' Stansbury Park home. Last Wednesday, though, it was quite the opposite. "It was nuts! I never thought I would be in that situation!" Debbie Pacheco said.
Debbie's daughter, Alexis Pacheco, was pregnant with her second child and thought she'd have time to get to the hospital. That is, until her daughter decided now was the time. "I didn't know until she was halfway out," Alexis said.
With no time to get to the hospital, Alexis ran to the bathroom, screaming for her mother who was in the next room. "I guess in the back of my mind I knew she'd know what to do," Alexis said.
Fortunately, she did. Debbie is a nurse who has been delivering babies for 15 years, but never on a bathroom floor. "I think I just flipped into my nurse mode and realized what I needed to do," Debbie said.
By the time Debbie's husband called 911, the baby had already come out but wasn't breathing. "It was very scary knowing it was my granddaughter, that I had to get her breathing and it was up to me," Debbie said.
Debbie used shoelaces to tie off the baby's umbilical cord, then gave her granddaughter mouth-to-mouth for several minutes, rubbed her back and chest until, finally, the baby started breathing on her own.
"It was very overwhelming," Debbie said.
"She saved her life," Alexis said.
At first, Alexis said she didn't know how to thank her mother, but after thinking about it for a little while she decided to name her new daughter after her mom. "Her dad had another name picked out for her, but we decided to name her Debbie instead," Alexis said.
Now, little Ren Debbie Pacheco will one day hear a story about how her grandmother saved the day and her life. "She'll be told, probably by everybody," Alexis laughed.
E-mail: acabrero@ksl.com
