Like millions of Canadians working from home to help stop the spread of COVID-19, General Motors’ OnStar advisors are doing the same, and a few weeks ago helped deliver a baby from their home offices.
Although the OnStar team averages about two remote baby deliveries a year, the unprecedented situation means this is the first time a member has helped deliver a baby while working from home.
Jenna Stapley and Edward Bloomdale, two OnStar emergency advisors who typically work from the call centre in Oshawa, Ont., joined forces to help deliver the baby girl. Stapley contacted 911 to dispatch paramedics to the provided GPS coordinates of the caller’s vehicle while Bloomdale guided the new parents through the delivery.
“I felt honoured to be part of this special moment, made more so by these troubling times. It was nice to hear the happiness at the end of the call,” Bloomdale said in a statement.
Stapley adds, “Hearing those brand new cries in that car was an amazing win. The immediate joy and happiness felt when we heard those cries is indescribable. I am honoured to be medically trained and able to continue serving our members through this pandemic, and its calls like these that really make you remember why we do what we do.”
This is the sixth baby in total the Oshawa OnStar team has helped deliver.
OnStar is GM’s telematics offering, available via subscription through all of the automaker’s brands. The service, and advisors like Stapley and Bloomdale, are accessed through a button in the cars or via an app and provides security services, stolen vehicle assistance, emergency and roadside assistance, navigation, remote diagnostics, and more. All OnStar advisors are emergency dispatch certified, similar to 911 operators.
GM Canada has also committed to making 1 million facemasks a month at the Oshawa plant for the Canadian government at cost to help curb the spread of the pandemic.
