Little Shrimp, Born At Sea

When the cook on his shrimp boat went into labour 50 kilometres offshore, Captain Ed Kiesel grabbed a new roll of paper towels and a first aid handbook and did the best he could. He successfully delivered Cindy Preisel's baby boy, even though the baby's feet emerged first. The newborn wasn't breathing, so Kiesel gently administered C-P-R. The baby began to take short breaths after 20 to 25 minutes of C-P-R, gulped in air, his lips turned rosy and he started crying.Ed Kiesel holds Brian Edward Mawhorr beside his shrimp boat.Kiesel used net twine, sterilized in boiling water, to tie off the umbilical cord and cut the newborn free from his mother. Preisel has named the baby Brian Edward Mawhorr, after his father and the captain who delivered him. "I was so happy and relieved," Preisel said. "It's hard to put into words." Kiesel said the boat, which set out from Fort Myers, Fla., on July 15, will head out to the Gulf of Mexico again Friday. The newborn's father, Brian Mawhorr, will continue on as a deck hand but Preisel plans to stay with family. "We set out with a crew of three and we came back with a crew of four," Kiesel said. "We're not getting too much new blood in the shrimp industry, so I guess we have to manufacture our own."