[image-caption title="Lake%20Region%20Electric%20Cooperative%E2%80%99s%20Amanda%20Merz%20received%20a%20Shining%20Star%20award%20from%20the%20Oklahoma%20Association%20of%20Electric%20Cooperatives%20for%20delivering%20a%20baby%20in%20a%20parking%20lot.%20(Photo%20Courtesy%3A%20Lake%20Region%20EC)" description="%20" image="%2Fnews%2FPublishingImages%2FAmanda_Merz.JPG" /]
Electric cooperatives often honor lineworkers for going beyond the call of duty when they respond to medical emergencies or perform dramatic rescues out in the field. But sometimes it's the employees who don't regularly have direct member contact who find themselves positioned for heroic acts.
Merz, an administrative assistant in the engineering and operations department at the Hulbert, Oklahoma-based co-op, won a Shining Star Awards from Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives for quick thinking under pressure. A previous version of the award was focused on lineworkers, but OAEC has since opened it to all employees.
“As many stories we hear of linemen’s good deeds, we have so many who work in our cooperatives and serve their communities,” said Traci Boyd, a loss control assistant at OAEC, based in Oklahoma City. “We wanted to bring attention to behind-the-scenes employees who don’t get the recognition or an appreciation day set for them as the linemen do.”
Last summer, while on her way to Lake Region EC’s headquarters after dropping off her daughter at church camp, Merz was driving behind a “crazy driving truck” on a rural highway. With hazard lights flashing, the driver sped down the road, quickly changing lanes.
“He came flying up behind me. I knew something was wrong,” she said.
Traffic picked up at the outskirts of Hulbert, and congestion prevented the driver from speeding ahead. And that’s when the truck veered into the parking lot of a Subway restaurant, Merz said.
She followed the truck into the parking lot to investigate. Fully expecting to see a heart attack or stroke victim, she encountered a sight she’ll never forget: the passenger in labor.
“There was his sweet wife with a baby halfway here and halfway not here,” Merz said. “She was delivering the baby going 80 miles an hour down the highway! Can you imagine having a baby in a truck seat?”
While the driver was on the phone with a 911 operator, Merz grabbed a sweatshirt from her car and “pretty much caught the baby. He was precious.”
Merz, who had received some first aid and CPR training from the co-op, stayed at the scene until paramedics arrived to take the new family to a nearby hospital. She didn’t get the family’s contact info but hopes to reunite with them at some point.
“I'm constantly looking for her in Walmart, and I also invited her to church,” Merz said. “I hope one day to run into them.”
