Essex-Windsor EMS deliver baby in parking lot 500 metres away from hospital

A baby was delivered in a Windsor ambulance, just 500 metres away from the hospital.

Essex-Windsor EMS (EWEMS) are being praised by the County of Essex for their work delivering a baby in a parking lot.

On March 4, EMS helped Riverside residents Taylor Cabana and Ryan Rock deliver their second child.

Cabana was a few days overdue and felt her first contraction around 5:30 p.m. They quickly progressed, becoming less than a minute apart within 10 minutes.

Just after 6 p.m., 911 was called and Essex-Windsor EMS responded to the scene.

At 6:57 p.m., Cabana welcomed a baby boy, Myles Kenneth Rock, in the back of an ambulance in a parking lot just 500 metres away from the Windsor Regional Hospital’s Met Campus.

“No one wants to have a baby in the back of an ambulance. But if you need to? We’re here for it,” said Sal Bertucci, a paramedic with Essex-Windsor EMS.

The call came right at the beginning of the team’s shift, causing even more rush to get out the door.

“We didn’t even have our uniforms fully on,” said Bertucci.

“I was definitely tripping over myself rushing to the ambulance.”

While this was happening, Cabana’s husband, Rock, was stuck at work and almost missed the birth.

Two ambulance units arrived on scene, one for each potential patient, just moments before Rock pulled up to the home.

“Definitely, it was hectic,” Rock said.

“I’m moving cars our of the way so Sal and Anna (Mitrev, paramedic) can back in their ambulance. They were just pulling the gurney out when I got home.”

The ambulance loaded Cabana up, with Rock following behind. But because of rush hour, he got separated from the ambulance. He ended up at the hospital first, wondering where the ambulance had gone.

“I originally didn’t think we were going to deliver the baby ourselves in the ambulance,” said Mitrev.

“There was no head [emerging]. That changed shortly after we were on the way to the hospital. When we saw the head, we knew delivery was imminent. I said to Lilly (Pattinson, EMS) that you’ve got to tell Sal to pull over – Now.”

After the birth, everybody was healthy and looking good, allowing the ambulance to continue to the hospital.

The EMS team said they were trained in school to deliver babies, but this was their first time delivering a baby on their own.

Cabana said she was scared to have her baby in the back of an ambulance, but not as much as the rapid labour.

“I’ve been telling people that this labour, start to finish, was shorter than the average feature film,” she said.

Rock met his wife and new son at the hospital.

“It’s funny, the hospital later gave us a piece of paper that read, ‘Place of birth: Met Hospital’ and the ‘Doctor of delivery’ was like, Dr. so-and-so and we were like, ‘no, no, no, place of delivery was Work Authority parking lot, and delivery was by Sal,’” Rock said.

Cabana and Rock later brought their baby to the EWEMS headquarters to thank the team in person.

“As much as it all went by so fast, it was also scary. But these paramedics handled it all really well,” said Cabana.

“I wanted Myles to have a photo taken with them, as a memento of how it all happened. Because this story is kind of crazy, and most people can’t say that’s how they were born!”

Bertucci said the call marks the number one call of all time, over the course of his 17-year career.