CINCINNATI — An Ohio Department of Transportation driver helped clear snow-covered roads on Jan. 25 so an ambulance carrying a sick baby could safely reach Cincinnati Children’s Hospital during last weekend’s winter storm.
ODOT driver Joe Este said he received a request about 20 minutes into his shift to assist with the transport, WXIX reported. The infant, Bryson, needed to be taken to the hospital for a higher level of care, but severe weather had left roads nearly impassable.
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“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,’” Este said.
Kelly Besl of the UC Children’s Transport Team said crews knew an ambulance couldn’t make it through the storm on its own, so they called ODOT to help clear a route. Este plowed miles of roadway with the transport team carrying baby Bryson close behind.
The storm, nicknamed “Winter Storm Fern,” blanketed the Tri-State with snow and ice over the weekend, and ODOT said drivers worked more than 30 hours in three days to keep roads passable.
“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,” Este said.
The transport team said baby Bryson and his family are safe and doing well. Team members said they had never faced a situation like this and credited ODOT with making the transport possible.
