North Las Vegas firefighters honored after helping save life of newborn baby

Seven North Las Vegas firefighters were honored Thursday morning for the lifesaving measures they performed on a newborn baby who was going through a medical emergency back in June.

During a small and intimate ceremony inside Fire Station 57 in North Las Vegas, the 7 firefighters were presented with a service commendation and small medal for their efforts.

"To save the life of a newborn baby that's going to be able to go on for a long time and experience a long happy, healthy life — it's just absolutely amazing," said one of the firefighters.

On the morning of June 30, Heather Adkinson was getting early labor contractions.

"We called our birth team, so we had a midwife, and we had a doula as well, to figure out what we were going to do... we get a birth check, do we go in right away?" said Kyle Adkinson, father of the newborn baby.

"Based off of the contraction length and timing and all that, the conclusion was, 'Hey, we are in early labor, we'll stay home for a little bit and once it gets closer to active labor, we'll reassess and go in from there.'"

But after a few hours, Heather's contractions started getting strong and she eventually went into active labor.

Kyle said they called their birthing team to alert them of what was going on, and as he was getting the family car ready take Heather to the birthing center, it was too late, baby Grace was already coming.

"We were about to get Heather in the car and she's like, 'We are not going to make it,' which in retrospect, it was probably a really good idea. I think from that point to Grace being born it was like 10-15 minutes," Kyle said.

"So we call everybody and redirect them to our house. And it became apparent that Grace was going to come before anybody else did. So we were on the phone with our midwife basically talking through labor and delivery. When she crowned it became apparent that something was wrong."

Baby Grace was going through cardiac arrest and needed oxygen immediately.

"Her face popped out and she wasn't breathing and that is when we called 911," Kyle said.

He said that in the quick minutes it took firefighters and paramedics to arrive, he was already performing CPR.

​ "When we got there, the baby was still blue," said Jesus Garcia, a firefighter and paramedic who responded to the scene.

"At that point, I knew the baby needed oxygen. The ventilation was the biggest concern of mine — was making sure that we can bag and provide enough oxygen for this baby... We were just doing our best to provide ventilation, keep the baby warm."

Firefighters eventually stabilized Grace and transported the mother and baby to the hospital.

Baby Grace remains in the hospital and is receiving medical treatment for the next 15 days.

"I fully believe that without them, my daughter would be dead. They got here to the hospital and got her life-saving care and made sure she was alive, and she could come home," Kyle said.

"They did another EEG, they did an MRI and everything about her brain was normal," said Kyle. " In terms of her brain, she was eating fine, she was doing normal baby things. Things you would not expect from a child that went through that kind of trauma and I think it's cause of these guys' quick response."

Garcia said he's grateful he was able to help save baby Grace's life.

"It definitely feels great to know that we make an impact," said Garcia. "Everyone signs up for this job to save a life, help a life, help a community... the fact that we were able to give somebody a chance of life, it's a huge blessing and it's a good thing that we were able to do."

WATCH | Firefighters being honored for their life-saving measures for baby Grace.