Philip Drangula shares the story of his first campsite baby delivery.
Stephen Finn
The weekend before Labor Day started like many others before it for Cinnaminson firefighter Philip Drangula. Throughout the summer, he and his wife Michelle take their two kids, Payton and Gavin, on regular trips to Baker’s Acres in Little Egg Harbor where they set up their RV for some “glamping” as Drangula calls it.
“I’ve got a two-bedroom trailer with a microwave,” said Drangula. “We call ourselves ‘glampers.’”
Each year he takes his family to the same campground where they have established something of a community. In addition to some aunts and uncles there with them, the other campers have all become familiar.
“The whole street we’re on through the years has become a big group of friends,” said Drangula.
It was toward the end of dinner that Sunday when things took an interesting turn. Drangula and his fellow campers heard a scream in the distance. At first they didn’t give it much thought, but within a few minutes Drangula heard his wife’s cousin calling his name.
“The first thing I think of is something happened to one of my kids, we hadn’t seen them in a half hour,“ said Drangula.
He got up and started toward the sound of the voice when he heard “bathhouse now!” Something in the inflection told him something was wrong. On his way to the bathhouse, he heard another neighbor yell “her water broke!” Drangula was now sure that whatever was happening, it wasn’t good.
Upon arriving at the bathhouse, he found the source of the scream. There was a pregnant woman leaning over a picnic table being tended to by members of Drangula’s family and some of their neighbors. She was clearly in pain and it became evident she was going into labor.
Unfortunately, the man she had come camping with had been called into work that day so Drangula and his family and friends were all she had. Drangula was informed the woman’s water broke and she was having contractions.
Everyone got to work pitching in wherever they could. The woman’s dogs had to be taken away as they were getting worked up in all of the confusion. Multiple people brought blankets, the kids in the area had to be taken to another location and shower curtains were retrieved from the bathhouse to provide some privacy for the woman.
“It was real neat the sense of community,” said Drangula. “Everybody stepped up.”
In the midst of all the action, Drangula was joined by Russel Luedecker, an EMT and officer with the Cranford Police Department, also vacationing with his family at the time. They had no equipment other than a pair of gloves.
“We looked at each other and said ‘she’s having this baby,’” said Drangula.
As they started the delivery process, Parkertown Fire Department arrived at the campground to assist. When the head began to emerge, they noticed something was wrong. The umbilical cord was wrapped twice around the baby’s neck.
While this can happen during a birth, and is easily remedied in the right setting, the present circumstances made for a more dangerous undertaking.
“For the cord to be wrapped around twice, in the middle of a field, on a picnic table, with no medical equipment. It was one of those unique situations,” said Drangula.
Fortunately they were able to clear the cord from around the neck and complete the birth. By then, ambulances had arrived. They transferred the woman to a stretcher and she was rushed to a local hospital. According to Drangula the mother is in good condition along with her new baby daughter who weighed in at a healthy 7-pounds, 4-ounces.
Drangula is a full-time fireman and part-time EMT. The pregnant woman was lucky he and Luedecker were on scene that day and their training was enough to take control of the situation.
“You’re never off duty. When something happens, 99 percent of us will stop and do something,” said Drangula.
Upon his return to the station, Drangula was quiet about what had occurred just weeks prior. The department had to hear about it second-hand. Fire Chief William Kramer felt Drangula deserved recognition for his actions and helped draft a press release to get the news out.
To Drangula, he was just doing what anyone with his training would have done in the same situation.
“It reflects so positively not only on the department but on the profession as a whole,” said Kramer. “It makes me proud of our people in the emergency services.”
