T-R PHOTO BY SARA JORDAN-HEINTZ Monday afternoon, Brooke and Garrett Ballard and their two children (center) met with the emergency team that helped their newborn son Guy enter the world in the early hours of April 30, in the parking lot of UnityPoint Health - Marshalltown after Brooke went into labor. The emergency team, left to right: Dr. Blaine Westemeyer, Mindy Gorman, RN, Taylor Blocker, RN, Amanda Kanm, CCP, Amy Stevens, RN and Kristi Tuttle, RN.

Monday afternoon, Brooke and Garrett Ballard and their two children met with the emergency team that helped their newborn son Guy enter the world in the early hours of April 30.

The baby was born in the parking lot of UnityPoint Health – Marshalltown after Brooke went into labor. Minutes counted.

“The first thing we noticed was it had been a quick delivery and we had to take care of them pretty quickly. He wasn’t breathing and didn’t have a pulse,” UnityPoint Health – Marshalltown Dr. Blaine Westemeyer said.

Originally, Brooke planned to have the baby later in the day at Iowa Methodist Hospital, but unusual pain woke her in the night.

Westemeyer said after “a long 10 minutes” they were able to get vitals on the newborn. A team from Blank Children’s Hospital later arrived and took both mother and child to Des Moines where Guy again stopped breathing. In total, the child spent 37 days in the NICU.

“Very quickly we divided forces and conquered,” Marshalltown nurse Taylor Blocker said of the staff treating Brooke and Guy simultaneously.

Marshalltown emergency room doctor Lance VanGundy praised the team’s quick thinking.

“It underscores the challenge of our job. We have to be a jack of all trades and experts for things that might only come in the door once a year, and this team really knocked it out of the park,” he said.

Marshalltown nurse Amanda Kanm said she believes divine intervention was at work.

“I prayed over him to help the Lord to be with us and he was,” Kanm said. “I give the Lord the credit and I feel like we’re all family and I will always remember (this family) in my heart.”

Through tears Brooke echoed a similar sentiment.

“You guys are family forever,” she said.

Ballard and her husband have one older son, Garrison, who turns 2 in August.

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Contact Sara Jordan-Heintz at 641-753-6611 or sjordan@timesrepublican.com