By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
A few weeks ago, Burlington High School science teacher Troy Everson walked into school to start his day.
There to greet him was BHS Principal Eric Burling, with a simple question.
“What are you doing in your class today?” Everson recalled being asked. Burling then added, “I have somebody who’s coming in, and we’re going to stop by your classroom.”
So later that day, when Burling sent two guests up with Assistant Principal Jill Oelslager, Everson was ready – if a little confused.
“The gentleman said, ‘I know who you are. We met a long time ago,’” said Everson. “I said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m not placing the face.’
“He said, ’17 years ago, this very night, you and I met.’ I still didn’t get it. He said, ‘In the middle of the night, my wife woke me up and said I think my water just broke.’”
With that bit of information, Everson’s mind went back those 17 years, to a cold, stormy, icy Wisconsin December evening, and a rescue squad call he will never forget.
The call
Once his memory was jogged, Everson remembered the night vividly.
On Dec. 13, 1996, Burlington was, simply put, a mess. An ice storm had made it virtually impossible to travel, which made life difficult for the Burlington Area Rescue Squad’s “green squad” – which Everson has always been a part of.
The squad got paged out for a woman in labor.
“The roads were horrible,” said Everson. “I remember that we crawled, essentially, out to their home.”
The Rushes had just moved into the home – located a few miles outside of Burlington – about six days before. Steve Rush remembers boxes everywhere, and then his wife waking him up in the middle of the night.
As an environmental health and safety manager for Huntsman International, Steve refers to himself a “few hours” short of being an EMT because of all the classes he’s taken.
So, when green squad arrived at his house, and Troy Everson was the first to walk through the door, he felt pretty comfortable telling them that his wife was ready to deliver.
Rush remembered telling Everson, “The kid is breech, and I can see his butt.”
Everson, meanwhile, thought Rush was the typical overanxious father – until he got upstairs and saw Rush’s wife, Jodi.
“Dad was right,” Everson recalled. “There was no time.
“The dad and I decided, ‘we’re going to deliver this baby.’”
Steve added, “He didn’t even bat an eye. He said, ‘We’re doing this.’”
The delivery
From there, Everson recalled, it was time to buckle down. The baby was, indeed, breech. As the rest of the squad prepped obstetrics kits and called for salt trucks so they would be able to transport to the hospital following the delivery, Everson and Steve Rush went back to the expectant mother.
It was not an easy delivery. Everson and Rush leave out most of the details, but a breech delivery does involve extra effort.
So, when the baby finally entered the world, Everson couldn’t help but get caught up in the moment.
“It was an incredible rush of emotion,” Everson said.
From there, things almost returned to normal. The salt trucks made it possible for the ambulance to make it back to the hospital, though it took the squad about a half hour to drive somewhere between five or six miles.
“On the way to the hospital, the baby fell asleep in his mother’s arms,” recalled Everson. The mother and child were checked out in the emergency room, then sent upstairs to the OB ward.
“I had no idea what the baby’s name was, and as a matter of fact, I really had no idea who the parents were,” Everson said.
A month or so after, the parents brought baby Noah to a rescue squad meeting, along with a picture.
That picture still remains in the Burlington Area Rescue Squad resource room, but it isn’t the only reminder. As a result of the delivery, storks are now painted on the side of the ambulances – with five tally marks.
Everson lays claim to the first.
The visit
Over the years, things have changed. Noah, now 17, is a junior at Elkhorn Area High School.
But what hasn’t changed is Noah’s lifelong interest in the stories Steve tells about his birth.
And as the two talked this fall, they realized that Noah’s 17th birthday would fall on Friday the 13th – the same as the day he was born.
“It’s something we’ve talked about before,” Steven said. “The whole thing…there’s so many little details that go into what makes the whole story what it was.”
So, when Steve broached the idea of visiting Everson and finally meeting him, it seemed like providence.
“He instantly thought it was a great idea,” said Steve, who added that he emailed Burling in the morning and had an answer by that afternoon.
“He thought it was awesome,” Steve added.
Only Burling, Oelslager and the school secretary knew what would transpire, as Burling wanted to keep it a surprise.
Coincidentally, the class the Rushes came to was Everson’s anatomy and physiology class – the precursor to enrolling in BHS’s EMT program. That program will be expanded next year to include Elkhorn and Delavan students via Gateway’s virtual classroom VANGUARD, and Noah Rush wants to take part.
That is the future, though. On Dec. 13, it was all about the past – and the present.
“Cut to 17 years later,” said Everson. “(They) decided it would be nice for the young man to finally meet me, when he’d actually remember who I was.
“I felt like life had come full circle for me,” Everson added.
As a teacher and an EMT, Everson has seen years of service go by, sometimes without recognition because people don’t see the behind-the-scenes effort.
This showed it.
“My son held out his hand to shake his, and said, ‘It’s an honor to meet you,’” Steve said. “(Noah) was pretty fired up.
“For me, it was two-fold,” Steve added. “He’s a schoolteacher, and an EMT. Ninety percent of the time, they only get the bad news.
“I was excited to be able to go and show my appreciation. Here’s living proof of the good that you do.”
And everyone finally got a chance to put a face to the names involved.
“I don’t think many people can say they met the guy that brought them into the world,” said Noah, who had been hearing the various details for many, many years. “It was really funny, because I honestly didn’t know what to expect.
“It was cool that he’s such a nice guy.”
And as the conversation played out, Everson discovered there were more similarities. Noah is interested in many different emergency fields, including the possibility of becoming a police officer, an EMT, or a paramedic.
With the BHS program expanding next year, Noah plans to be on board.
“I definitely plan on signing up,” said Noah. “It sounds like it would be a fun course to take.”
That caught Everson off guard.
“Little did I know, 17 years ago … I was passing on that torch,” said the teacher and EMT, who called both Steve and Noah “gracious and kind and complimentary.”
“(They) just returned the favor that I helped them with 17 years ago,” he added. “The inspiration and feeling of pride in meeting this young man are definitely a highlight in my career in working in EMS and in my career working with young adults.”
Or as Steve said to him during that amazing conversation in the classroom, Everson has touched people’s lives.
“The man you see every day made a huge difference,” Steve told his son in the classroom that dad.
Everson added, “It was just a really good feeling. It validated why we volunteer and why we do what we do.”
-
-
-
-
-