‘As calm as I may have appeared I was shaking underneath’: Paramedic Michael Georgiou

The birth plans of Riddells Creek couple Sarah and Matt Spinner went out the window when their baby was born in 10 minutes, at home. It was looking for grim, until paramedic Michael Georgiou arrived.

Seasoned paramedic Michael Georgiou never truly clocks off.

Off duty and on the way to see a mate in Gisborne on Wednesday night, the Ambulance Victoria regional director’s pager buzzed, leading to one of the most chaotic nights of his 15 year career.

Mr Georgiou said he did not hesitate to answer the “priority zero” page to go to Sarah and Matt Spinner’s Riddells Creek home.

Ms Spinner had just given birth, and when Mr Georgiou arrived he found the panicked couple on the floor, cradling a blue baby boy, Brooklyn.

Sarah birthed Brooklyn at home, in 10 minutes. Picture: Jason Edwards

Brooklyn was blue when he was born. Picture: Jason Edwards

Mr Georgiou told the said he had helped delivered five babies in his career as an ambo, but none in such “intense” circumstances as this week.

“As calm as I may have appeared I was shaking underneath,” he said at a reunion with the Spinner family on Saturday.

“(Brooklyn) wasn’t making a lot of noise when I got here and wasn’t the best colour that I’d like to see but with some gentle stimulus and oxygen he came around which was really good.

“The first thing we established was just making sure he had a good heart rate and that he was breathing.

“Then it was about looking after Brooklyn and keeping him warm.

“We were able to cut the (umbilical) cord and had to keep Brooklyn on oxygen.”

But Ms Spinner also needed urgent attention to control bleeding.

Mr Georgiou cared for both mum and baby, while talking to colleagues over the phone.

An on-duty ambulance crew arrived soon after.

Sarah and Matthew Spinner and baby Brooklyn with paramedics Michael Georgiou, Kate Mooney, and Sebastian Kalinowski. Picture: Jason Edwards

The Spinners said their plans for Brooklyn’s birth involved three rules: no home births, no car births, and no water births.

Their plans went out the window within minutes of Ms Spinner going into labour, with

Ms Spinner said they had been “standing around the bench” before she started feeling “intense contractions”.

“The next minute my water broke and then 10 minutes later Brooklyn was born,” Ms Spinner said.

Mr Spinner said he “caught” Brooklyn on the living room rug while on the phone to call-out staff.

Ms Spinner said: “When he came out he wasn’t screaming straight away he just had a quiet murmur.

“We were rubbing his back and he was very blue.”

“I was just in shock because it happened so quickly … I was more worried about Brooklyn.”

Ms Spinner described Brooklyn’s first cry some 45 minutes after Mr Georgiou had arrived as a “major sense of relief” before they went on their way to the Joan Kirner hospital in Sunshine.

“When we heard that cry we just knew that everything was okay,” she said.

“It wasn’t how we had planned it.

“We thought we’d be in a hospital with doctors in a controlled environment.”

Four days on from his birth Brooklyn is “doing really well” alongside his older siblings Gracie, 7, and Taj, 2.

Originally published as ‘As calm as I may have appeared I was shaking underneath’: Paramedic Michael Georgiou