Fort McMurray hospital sees first baby born since wildfire evacuations

As the only hospital in Fort McMurray is still taking its own baby steps to try and return to normal following last month’s wildfire, staff at the Northern Lights Regional Health Centre (NLRHC) helped deliver a baby for the first time on Friday since re-opening.

Eli Danny Roy Mercer was born to parents Steven Mercer and Melissa Taylor at 5:02 a.m., weighing six pounds and seven ounces. The hospital said Eli and his mom are both doing well.

“It was the deciding factor for us to come home, knowing that the hospital was back up and running,” Taylor said in a release. “I didn’t want to have my baby anywhere else.”

“We are so thrilled to see the NLRHC returning to normal service and we’re all so excited to mark this special birth,” David Matear, senior operating director for NLRHC and the Fort McMurray area for Alberta Health Services (AHS), said.

READ MORE: Heroic measures praised during the Fort McMurray hospital evacuation

The hospital was evacuated in dramatic fashion on May 3 as a wildfire threatened the entire community of Fort McMurray. A couple of days after, Sherrie Whiffen, a nurse at the hospital, described the harrowing moments when staff and patients were forced to flee the facility.

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“I did look up to the hill, up to the left, and there was flames and fire right there,” she said. “When you see those bright orange flames burning, yeah, it’s scary.”

READ MORE: ‘We got the job done’: Nurse describes Fort McMurray hospital evacuation

AHS said it had to move 105 patients to three different reception areas that day. Among them were nine babies in the neonatal unit and their mothers, who were flown to Edmonton.

While the hospital was unable to be used, a temporary Urgent Care Centre was quickly constructed to tend to the health needs of emergency responders who were fighting the fire and also to be in place for when the first evacuees returned.

READ MORE: Fort McMurray residents will return to community with access to health care thanks to unique facility

Emergency, laboratory and diagnostic imaging services Returned June 1 and on Monday, the NLRHC began offering “core Regional Hospital health care services,” meaning the hospital was once again able to provide medical and surgical inpatient, ICU, OR, obstetrical, pediatric, and inpatient psychiatry services.

On Tuesday, the hospital says it will return to providing full comprehensive health care services, including ambulatory care services as well as dialysis and cancer care.

Continuing and long-term care patients will begin to return on Thursday.

Watch below: Global News’ ongoing coverage of the Fort McMurray wildfire.

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AHS is still urging people requiring dialysis, cancer treatments or who have complications of pregnancy, to delay returning to Fort McMurray until at least Tuesday.

Eli is Mercer and Taylor’s second child. The baby boy already has a big sister named Abagail who is almost two years old.

-with files from The Canadian Press