A holiday tradition is YNN’s presentation of Red Cross Real Hero stories. The 2011 Real Heroes were honored Wednesday morning at the Red Cross Real Hero Breakfast at the Oncenter. This is the story of the 2011 Dispatch Hero.

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“The job is very rewarding, there are days that don’t have good outcomes, there are days that have excellent outcomes,” said Todd Hall, Onondaga County 911 Dispatch.

For 911 Dispatcher Todd Hall, a day of training last winter proved to be one of the good days.

“It was a typical winter night, started out fairly quiet and remained quiet until we got the call,” said Hall.

The call was from a woman whose granddaughter was in labor.

“We determined where she was in the labor and we found out she was in active labor. We found out that her contractions were very close apart and had a good idea at that point that the baby was going to be born before the ambulance got there,” said Hall.

Using his training, Todd talked to the women, going through emergency procedures, keeping them calm and focused through a rapidly moving process.

“It was less than 10 minutes from when we got the call, to the time the child was born, and it was a few minutes after that when EMS arrived,” said Hall.

For Todd, being new to the job, having a successful outcome was something special. And does he feel like a hero for his efforts?

“I did my job. Virtually anyone in the world can be a hero. You don’t have to wear a uniform, you don't have to have a patch on your sleeve you don't have to have any special training. It’s timing and the fact that you are faced with a problem, faced with an emergency, and it's time to step up and take care of it. That's what turns a person from an ordinary person into a hero,” said Hall.

For stepping up, Todd Hall is the 2011 Red Cross Dispatch Real Hero.