On the April 18, 2001 edition of NBC's "Today" show, host Katie Curic interviewed 10 year-old Tyrone Wyckoff, his mother Linda and father Johnnie Howard--all still at the hospital--and Rochester (NY) dispatcher Patrick DelleFave seated at a dispatch console. Curic couldn't interview the 8 lb.-6 oz. baby sister!

Curic said the boy, "called 911 with a slight problem. His mom was having a baby, right there in her bedroom." They then played excerpts from the logging tape of the 911 call the youngster made. Curic noted that "Things were happening fast and furious," but with the help of DelleFave, Tyrone was able to assist in delivering his own sister.

The mother and son were home alone while the father was at work, when the mother's water broke. She instructed Tyrone to call his father at work, and Dad then told Tyrone to dial 911 for help. During that call, Tyrone sounded understandably excited. However, during the TV show interview, he was calm and had an excellent recall of the event. At one point, DelleFave used EMD cards to give Tyrone instructions on tying off the baby's umbilical cord. According to Tyrone, that's exactly what he did--with remarkable calm, he yanked a shoelace from his own shoe and tied off the cord.

At the conclusion of the call, after Tyrone had hung up but the call was still being recorded, DelleFave said, "Not bad for a 10 year-old!"

DelleFave was on camera several times, combined with a shot of the family at the hospital. His portion of the seven-minute "Today" show segment ran only 46 seconds, during which he said his training and experience helped him do his job. "This must have been one of the strangest 911 calls you've ever received as a dispatcher....was it?" Curic asked. [Quicktime] [RealVideo 56k] [RealVideo DSL/cable]

"It was definitely a highlight of my career," DelleFave replied. "He did was instructed to do, and you can't ask for much more than that."

Curic responsded, "Well, you did an incredible job, too, in sort of helping him along, and keeping him calm, and the situation under control. So I think you're to be commended as well."

By the way, it was the 28th "stork" for Rochester dispatchers, so they're really veterans in handling these situations.

Behind DelleFave were three terminals, one with a screen-saver slowly scrolling, "Radio Over Here." There was also a blue cloth banner on the wall, with gold letters "Rochester Department of Emergency Communications," and "Monroe County N.Y."

At one point during the interview, a close-up of Tyrone showed that he was wearing a light blue polo shirt with Rochester's newest embroidered "9-1-1" patch on the front (the skyline of Rochester), with the words "Stork Squad" beneath it. The comm center is in the process of changing patches, and the polo shirt and embroidery was specially created for the occasion (thanks to Patty Gregory-Burke for the info). The shirt also had his named embroidered on it, and there was an "award" medal pinned to the upper left side.