Pregnant teenager and her baby saved!

Because of a high school bomb scare, the lives of a pregnant teenager and the child she was carrying were saved. Now the two police officers who helped save them have received commendations.

Police Chief Butch Asselin and local health officials said Sgt. Johnson Sargent's and School Resource Officer David Daig-neault's quick action averted what otherwise would have been a tragedy.

When a bomb scare alert was sounded at Skowhegan Area High School two weeks ago, the usual process was set in motion. The school was evacuated, police and fire officials arrived, entrances were blocked and a search inside and outside the school began.

That's when Sargent and Daigneault found her, a 16-year-old girl slumped in the passenger seat of a vehicle, unconscious and unresponsive.

"She appeared to be having a seizure. She couldn't speak, and she was obviously in distress," Johnson said. "We didn't know exactly what was wrong."

The police officers suspected she could be diabetic because they saw a lot of sugar products in the vehicle. They also considered that she may have ingested drugs.

"We knew it was a medical emergency of some kind," Daigneault said.

The passenger-side door was locked, but Daigneault said they were able to enter the car through an unlocked door. It was then they discovered the girl was pregnant. Investigation would later reveal that the girl had been acting oddly earlier that March 16 morning and had refused to go into the school building. Some of her friends had checked on her during the morning, but she had not been exhibiting symptoms then.

"The irony is that she had been there since morning," Daigneault said. He said it was unlikely he or anyone else would have seen her in the car if they had not been searching because of the bomb scare.

"Somebody was looking out for her from above," Daigneault said.

The officers summoned emergency medical personnel and the girl was taken to Redington-Fairview General Hospital, where she was rushed into surgery for an emergency Caesarean section. She gave birth to a 6-pound, full-term baby, according to Asselin.

Asselin said he was contacted by a supervising nurse at the hospital: "She said if it had not been for the officers' actions, the girl and her baby would have perished."

In a letter to Asselin, nurse manager Geneva Sides wrote that the two officers had "acted in a prompt and professional manner" to get emergency help for a young woman who was having seizures because of complications of her pregnancy.

"This simple act of doing a thorough job saved the lives of that young woman and her infant daughter," and, she wrote, both officers should be commended "for the caring and professional consideration they showed in a potential life-or- death situation."

Asselin agrees.

"They actually saved this girl's life," he said. "It just shows the quality of people we have working for us -- well-trained, topnotch. The town is very fortunate to have them working here," said Asselin, who gave them copies of Sides' letter and recognized them at a recent department meeting. He also announced their efforts at a selectmen's meeting Tuesday night.