LUMBERTON — “She’s my angel. I couldn’t have done it without her.”
That’s what Chasity Locklear, of Maxton, said Wednesday about Katrina Oxendine, Robeson County 911 operator.
On Monday morning Locklear, 27, was pregnant, and the unborn was in a hurry.
“I was at the house and I was walking and then I went to hurting,” Locklear said.
Locklear was going into labor and her cousin Hunter Scott, 19, and her friend, 19-year-old Thomas Bell, who were in her home with Locklear, went into action. Scott noticed the baby trying to make an exit, and Bell called 911.
Oxendine answered the call. What happened next led to Oxendine being the inaugural recipient of the Robeson County Life Saving Award.
She dispatched an ambulance, but Locklear’s baby was not going to wait so Oxendine stayed on the line and coached them over the phone on how to deliver the baby.
“I walked her through step-by-step, from getting the towels they needed and everything else,” she said. “The process went pretty fast.”
Scott helped deliver the baby and Bell tied off the umbilical chord, both following Oxendine’s instructions to the letter.
“It felt like I’d been here before,” Scott said about the delivery process. “She knew what she was doing and we felt like she knew what we were doing.
“I was scared, but it was a beautiful thing,” Bell said.
It didn’t take long before Oxendine’s directions over the phone by Jose Corona announcing his arrival.
“When the baby came out I heard it cry,” Oxendine said.
Locklear’s fifth child and first son, Jose, was born at 11:41 a.m. The ambulance arrived shortly after the birth and mother and child were taken to the hospital.
Overall her son is healthy, but is still in the hospital being treated for jaundice, a yellowing of the skin and eyes that is common among newborns. The 4-pound, 11-ounce boy is scheduled to be released on Saturday.
On Wednesday, Locklear and Oxendine met for the first time at the Robeson County Emergency Center. Locklear said she had to meet the person who helped with the special deliver, and might have saved a life.
“I wanted to thank her,” she said. “If it wasn’t for Miss Katrina I don’t know what I would’ve done. She was great.”
Oxendine was given the award in recognition of her professionalism and for successfully handling the call. The new award will be given to Robeson County 911 Center staff members who provide outstanding service during real-time emergency situations.
Chad Deese, the 911 center’s assistant director, said Oxendine deserves to be recognized for what she did.
“It’s pretty sweet, right?” he said said of the award. “She’s done a wonderful job.”
Oxendine has been working as an 911 operator for eight years and this was the second time she has helped deliver a baby while on duty.
“I was so excited,” she said. “It was a good feeling. You train for this, so you have scripted words and you have to know what you are doing.”
Locklear believes things could have turned out a lot worse if it were not for Oxendine.
“She saved me and my baby’s life,” she said. “For her not being a doctor and not being in the room she did a wonderful job. She’s a blessing to me and my baby, that’s for sure.”
David Pollard can be reached at 910-416-5165 or via email at dpollard@robesonian.com.
