CHOPPER ZIPS MOM-TO-BE TO HOSPITAL
Little Darren Hooper Jr. let out a hardy wail while nursing Saturday morning, solid assurance that a hurricane rescue mission was a success.

Only hours earlier, the newborn's parents and a Coast Guard helicopter crew had raced through the remnants of Hurricane Gordon to reach Albemarle Hospital before he reached them.

They made it with 38 minutes to spare.

``It was highly exciting. It was a jolt,'' said Darren Hooper of Avon, the baby's father.

The rescue operation began Friday afternoon on Hatteras Island, when Darlene Vacha went into labor and was resigned to giving birth at a makeshift labor room at the Hatteras Island Rescue Squad.

The Outer Banks island has no medical facility equipped to deliver a baby, and the hurricane's flood waters had broken through the only road on the island,leaving Hatteras residents stranded.

Hooper said he and his fiancee weren't all that scared when Vacha, 34, went into labor early.

This was Vacha's sixth child and her second with Hooper, 32.

``We just went through this thing 17 months ago, so we were pretty calm,'' the commercial fisherman said.

They drove from Avon through a stretch of N.C. 12 that had disappeared beneath ocean overwash and piles of sand just north of Buxton.

``There were places where you couldn't see the road and just had to drive on the water and sand. You just couldn't tell where the highway was supposed to be,'' Hooper said.

After arriving safely at the rescue station, island doctor Whit Dunkle said Vacha wasn't quite ready to deliver and called the Coast Guard in Elizabeth City. A Coast Guard helicopter crew was dispatched, and arrived at Billy Mitchell Field near Cape Hatteras at 9:35 p.m. The crew was back in the air in 15 minutes, fully expecting to deliver the baby in mid-flight.

``It was different,'' Vacha, an Avon hotel co-manager, said of her second-ever air trip.

``That was pretty exciting,'' Hooper added. ``We were in the fog and we were getting bumped all over.''

Coast Guard flight mechanic Gary Hart and rescue swimmer Shawn R. kept a close eye on the laboring mother while Dunkle monitored her progress.

``The more nervous they got, the more nervous I got,'' Hooper said.

Pilot Dave Gunderson and co-pilot Guy Pearce maneuvered through murky skies to land the helicopter 10:38 p.m. at Albemarle Hospital. Vacha delivered a healthy 7-pound, 5-ounce boy at 11:16.

Gunderson also was at the controls this week during a dramatic Coast Guard rescue of a family whose sailboat was caught in the hurricane's path.

Among the family members was a 4-month-old who went into huge ocean swells with his mother in order to be hoisted aboard the helicopter.

Vacha eagerly expressed gratitude Saturday toward the Coast Guard and Dunkle.

``I'd like to hug all the guys and thank them,'' she said from the hospital, nursing her newborn. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

GARY C. KNAPP

Darlene Vacha holds Darren Hooper Jr. in Albemarle Hospital

Saturday. He was born 38 minutes after his parents arrived at the

hospital by Coast Guard helicopter Friday. The special delivery was

necessary because Hurricane Gordon shut down the roads.


KEYWORDS: HURRICANE GORDON

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