In early 2005, Lateshia Hall was getting ready to give birth to her seventh child. However, two days before her scheduled induction, Hall realized she was going into labor and that it was happening very quickly. She called 911 and members of the Knoxville Fire Department, who were trained as paramedics, responded just in time. They helped Hall deliver a baby boy whom she named OT Harris. Now that baby boy is a teen who is interning with the department.
OT is now 18 and is preparing to attend East Tennessee State University this coming school year. This summer he is participating in the Knoxville Summer in the City Intern Program. According to their website, during the summer, “each intern will be assigned to a department with a supervisor/mentor in that department. The supervisor/mentor will orient the intern to the department, train them on responsibilities, oversee their work, and meet with the intern on a weekly basis to provide instructional feedback.”
OT was assigned to the Knoxville Fire Department. He plans to major in English and is helping with social media and other administrative tasks for the summer. Some of the firefighters who helped to deliver him still work there, specifically his mentor. While talking to Mark Wilbanks, the assistant fire chief and paramedic who is OT’s supervisor and mentor for the summer, they made the connection.
Wilbanks has responded to other emergency births since then but still remembers the night OT was born. He says he remembers Hall’s “calm, cool and collected” demeanor — and cutting the umbilical cord of his future intern. He never dreamed he would cross paths with the family again.
They were amazed to find this connection and posted a picture on the Department’s Facebook page of OT and the firefighters who responded to his mother’s call for help.
OT’s mother went on to have 13 children, including OT, who has impressed the Fire Department already. She and the Knoxville Fire Department are a testament to the power of protecting life.
