Pendleton County Ambulance asks for help to provide a safe haven for newborns

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  • A newborn dropped off at a Carmel, IN, Safe Haven Box grips the finger of her rescuer. The baby is now a year old and is in a loving family. Photo courtesy of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, the non-profit organization responsible for fundraising for box installation.
    A newborn dropped off at a Carmel, IN, Safe Haven Box grips the finger of her rescuer. The baby is now a year old and is in a loving family. Photo courtesy of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, the non-profit organization responsible for fundraising for box installation.
  • PENDLETON COUNTY SAFE HAVEN FLYER
    PENDLETON COUNTY SAFE HAVEN FLYER
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By Carolyn Reid

A recent tragic incident answered by several Pendleton County First Responders sent them seeking shoulders from Northern Kentucky Fire Fighters Peer Support Group. While they were there, Chief Adam Fuller from Ft. Mitchell gave Ambulance Director Jody Dunhhoft a lead to make a positive out of a difficult situation. He mentioned Ft. Mitchell’s participation in the Safe Haven Baby Box program, and Dunhoft says, “We both agreed it would be an excellent resource for the community.”

Safe Haven Baby Boxes were started in 2015 by a woman who was abandoned herself. Her non-profit helps facilities who wish to install the boxes fundraise for their placement.

Dunhoft brought home the idea, and Marianne Roseberry from Judge/Executive David Fields’s office helped connect her to Lisa Klee, a volunteer for Safe Haven Baby Boxes, and then Dunhoft brought Klee to the ambulance board’s March meeting to explain the idea.

Ben Wolfe, a member of the PC Ambulance Board, explained what the board heard. “The facility that hosts the box has to have 24/7 staffing,” Klee told them, “and it has to be an emergency facility or a hospital.”

For Pendleton County, that meant the PC ambulance district was the only spot to host a box and while it will be located in the county, it would serve anyone from anywhere as the need arises.

While the decision to use the box may be excruciating for the person in the position to use it, the process itself is simple: a drawer is opened, and the baby is placed in the box. (The baby has to be younger than thirty days old.) Once the drawer is closed, it cannot be reopened from the outside. Dispatch is alerted, and the station is, as well. The baby is retrieved by a first responder, and is cared for appropriately from that point. The box is climate-controlled and is essentially a small crib. It will undergo a seven-day test period before it is fully operational.

A hot-line is in place in hopes the parent will call to get support in a crisis situation, and a person will meet with the parent personally at that point. That option is heavily promoted; however, if the parent has already determined the box is the best option, it is in place, and the parent can drop off the baby safely and anonymously.

The hope is that this option will save babies from abandonment and health complications or death as a result of that.

The box will cost $12,000 at the outset. This will pay for installation. The $600 per year maintenance fee will be covered by fiscal court, Wolfe says.

The ambulance service, with the help of Safe Haven, is asking for the community’s help funding the box.

In the region, boxes are located in Ft. Mitchell, Mt. St. Joseph-Cincinnati, Lawrenceburg, IN, and Sunman, IN. (According to Google Maps, Indiana holds the largest concentration of boxes in the country.) Pendleton County’s box will be available to anyone, but will be especially convenient to the surrounding counties such as Bracken, Grant, Harrison, Owen, and others who do not have the service at this time.

If you can help, monies can be donated to Safe Haven Boxes for Pendleton County at this link: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/babyboxfundraiserforpendletonctyky/

A QR code is also available on the poster attached to this article, below.

Wolfe says he hopes the box is never used, but he is glad it will be available. The presence of the box, he knows, increases the chance a child’s life may be saved.