AFSCME Snow Plow Driver Helps Transport Sick Baby To Cincinnati Children’s During Winter Storm
An Ohio Department of Transportation driver and member of OSCEA AFSCME helped clear snow-covered roads Sunday to ensure a sick baby could safely reach Cincinnati Children’s Hospital during the weekend’s winter storm.
Joe Estes, an ODOT driver, received a call 20 minutes into his Sunday shift requesting help for an ambulance transport.
A baby boy named Bryson needed immediate transport to Cincinnati Children’s for a higher level of care, but the storm had made roads nearly impassable.
“I got a phone call and they said, ‘We’ve got a sick baby and we need to get there, we’re losing our window of time,’” Estes said.
Kelly Besl, part of Cincinnati Children’s transport team, said the team knew roads would be impassable for an ambulance alone, so they called ODOT for help clearing the way.
Estes cleared miles of roadway with the transport team carrying baby Bryson following behind. “It’s probably the most important trek of my ODOT career. It wasn’t just pushing snow; it was getting this ambulance to this hospital safely and back,” Estes said.