AKRON, Ohio — What started off as a normal morning for pediatric nurse Danielle Freeman, quickly turned into anything but.
Freeman arrived to work at Akron Children's Hospital, where she is a nurse in the Neurology Department. When she parked, she noticed a mother duck, frantically quacking, with one lone duckling following closely behind her. And she quickly realized what happened to the other babies.
“I thought, oh my, gosh, please don’t tell me this is what happened and, sure enough, I walk over and there’s 8 or 9 baby ducks way down in the sewer,” said Freeman. “I couldn’t leave them.”
So she, and some of the other employees that started arriving, hatched a plan. First, they called the hospital's Public Safety Department, the Akron Fire Department and the Animal Control. But time seemed to be running short, and mama duck was clearly anxious. Freeman says, she knew she had to go into the sewer herself to perform the rescue mission. So they jumped into action.
Some of the others who gathered started to pull up the tar that surrounded the sewer grate and, once that was finished, they pulled up the grate itself. Freeman jumped right in.
She says, she immediately heard the baby ducklings peeping in the pipes, and assumed they were hiding just out of sight so they could stay close to the sound of their mama's voice. One by one, Freeman gently grabbed the ducklings, lifting them out of the sewer and to safety -- far away from the sewer grate, so they didn't fall back in on accident.
Heather Belacic, clinical operations manager in Pediatric Gastroenterology and Surgery, said seeing Freeman save the baby ducklings and reunite them with their mama was a “magical moment” and the “best way to start a day.”
The other employees who assisted Freeman in getting the sewer grate up and moving the ducklings to safety included Dr. Scott Boulanger (General Surgery) Amanda Hale (Pulmonology), Nate Sole (Pediatric Psychology and Psychiatry) and Carrie Wagner (GI).
You can watch video of the rescue in the player below.