TV Phone Lets Father Be There for Son’s Birth

Bill Walther’s wife, Carol, was seven months’ pregnant, and they had just finished their second of five Lamaze childbirth classes. But the week of the third session, Bill Walther suffered a devastating motorcycle accident while riding on rural roads near San Luis Obispo and was paralyzed from the waist down.

“I knew I was going to have to give up a lot of things--and seeing my child being born was one of them,” said Walther, who was injured in August. “It was one of many painful realizations.”

Walther’s doctors knew they could not restore the use of his legs. They knew that he was destined to spend his life in a wheelchair. And they knew that they could not even allow him to leave the Rehabilitation Institute to be with his wife when she gave birth in Santa Maria.

But the doctors treating Walther searched for some way to allow him to participate in the birth, said Clif Leonard, chief clinical psychologist at the institute. They considered it an important part of his rehabilitation.

The institute’s staff investigated numerous ways to enable Walther to see at least a video image of the birth, but none were practical. Then a staff member heard about a new visual telephone and contacted the manufacturer, Luma Telecom Inc. of Santa Clara.

As a result, early Thursday morning, Walther peered at the telephone’s video monitor--donated by Luma Telecom--and watched his wife give birth to Benjamin Howard Walther, 6 pounds, 14 ounces.

He talked to his wife throughout the night, encouraged her to “push when she needed to,” and cried when the baby was delivered. Then he sipped champagne and passed out cigars.

“It was one of those moments when you feel particularly close to your wife, probably as close as you’ll ever feel,” he said. “And without the phone, I would have missed out on it completely.

“You can’t totally bridge the gap with a black-and-white TV image but at least I could contribute and feel some of what she was going through.”

During Walther’s rehabilitation at the institute, his wife’s pregnancy afforded him the opportunity to focus on something else besides his handicap, Leonard said. The institute’s staff realized that it was extremely important that Walther participate during the birth.

“We’re always looking to minimize the degree of interruption in the lives of our patients, and for Bill not to be with his wife at the hospital was a major disruption,” said Leonard, who had worked with Walther since he arrived at the institute in September.

“Something like this has an impact on your relationship with your wife and child. So we searched out all kinds of alternatives so he could take part as much as possible,” he said.

Able to Watch

Carol Walther, 37, a high school teacher, had hoped that her husband would at least be able to watch at the hospital, but his doctors determined that he was not ready to be moved.

“It definitely does not make up for him not being here,” she said in a telephone interview. “But this is our first child, and his presence is a source of moral support for me. And ever since we heard about the phone, I’ve noticed that he was uplifted.

“It was something for him to look forward to; it was a goal. And with something like this, you need a lot of small goals to get through a difficult period,” she said.

The doctors and staff at the Center for Women’s Health in Santa Maria, where Carol Walther gave birth, and at the institute, where her husband has been staying, worked together to install the visual telephone system. Carol Walther’s doctor, Tad Callahan, drilled holes in the ceiling of the delivery room so an extension cord could be run from the telephone plug in an adjacent room.

Large Monitor

In Santa Barbara, a large monitor was hooked up to the three-inch screen on the telephone to enlarge the picture for Bill Walther.

Carol Walther was in labor for 20 hours, and she was in contact with her husband through the visual telephone for the last six hours, Callahan said. Because it was such a long labor, he said, it was helpful that her husband could offer support.

“When she needed encouragement, he gave her encouragement; when she rested, he rested,” Callahan said. “I wasn’t sure about all this at first, but it worked out very well. He participated, asked questions, and they talked back and forth. He stayed up all night with her.”

Now that the baby has been born, Walther, 42, who was a brakeman for Southern Pacific Railroad, realizes that he has to prepare for an uncertain and difficult future. He has to prepare for life and fatherhood in a wheelchair.

‘Looking Ahead’

“I’ve gone through a lot of regrets, but much of that’s behind me now,” said Walther, who hopes to be home by Thanksgiving. “I feel like two people now. I feel like a 65-year-old man whose looking back over his life, and I feel like an 18-year-old kid whose looking ahead to the future.

“This baby is good for me in that way. It gives me, in a sense, a new beginning.”