FLOWERY BRANCH - Typically, firefighters spend their time doing just that...fighting fires. But there are those occasions when they're called upon to take care of other emergencies, and that's just what happened the morning of April 21 at Tree Park Apartments.
That morning, at 9:22, a baby girl decided she couldn't wait for her parents to drive to the hospital before she was born. Luckily for Mom and Dad, the firefighters from Hall County Fire Station 5 were on duty.
Susana Luna and her husband Sebastian Fees had arrived in the United States in January, transferred to the area by his employer, German auto parts manufacturer Elringklinger. The couple was expecting their first child, and all was going as planned.
Luna said she started feeling some pain the Friday before daughter Elena was born, but she had taken childbirth classes, so she began doing some relaxation exercises and wasn't worried. By the next morning, though, when she called her midwife, it was too late to get to the hospital in Roswell. The midwife told her to call 9-1-1.
Fees said he quickly did what the midwife instructed.
"I called 9-1-1 and this lovely guy said, 'Yeah, push the baby back.' So, I was pushing back the baby, holding the phone...," he laughed as he re-enacted the juggling act from that fateful morning.
Fees, who is from Germany, said firefighters and EMTs arrived in a matter of minutes, something that would not have happened in his country or his wife's native Mexico.
"Maybe [they would be] coming in two hours," he said. "So we were really lucky that we are in the United States. It was really fast, unbelieveable [sic] fast."
Firefighter Daryl Rogers was one of the first to arrive at the apartment, and he said baby Elena wasn't waiting. He said there was no time to give Luna any medication.
"She had no pain medicine. All she had was hands to hold and she held mine for awhile and about broke it," said Rogers with a smile. "She was a trooper."
Firefighter Dan Moore said this was his first delivery "in the field," although he has had personal experience with delivering babies.
"I actually delivered my son in the ER just because the midwife let me," he said.
Wednesday morning the family of three took a short trip to Fire Station 5 on Atlanta Highway at Martin Road to say thank you to Rogers, Moore and the other firefighters who were there for Elena's delivery.
Both Rogers and Moore had a chance to hold Elena and everyone posed for pictures with the fire engine, naturally.
Both Luna and Fees said they were extremely thankful for the excellent job performed by the emergency personnel, but as for having another baby in the same dramatic fashion?
"I will go to the hospital when I have the first pain," Luna said with a big laugh.
Monday
October 21st, 2024
3:28AM
