A Windsor mom says her son 'will have a story to tell' after giving birth to him in the back of an ambulance a few hundred meters from the hospital.
On March 4, Taylor Cabana was alone at her Riverside home, a few days overdue, when she felt her first contraction around 5:30 p.m. and called her mom because her husband was at work.
By the time her mom arrived, her contractions were less than a minute apart, and a call was made to 911 with Essex-Windsor EMS ambulances dispatched to the home.
As she was being taken to Windsor Regional Hospital's Met Campus near Tecumseh Road and Kildare Road, her contractions kept increasing in frequency and severity.
It was at that point that a decision was made to pull the ambulance into the Work Authority parking lot at Tecumseh Road and Walker Road for the safety of everyone and to ensure a safe delivery because the baby was coming.
Cabana says she was just in the moment as everything was happening, and once it became clear she was going to have to deliver in the ambulance.
"I think at that point I was just like, 'You can't be serious. 'This can't actually be happening. This isn't real. This isn't happening. You're kidding, right?' You realize it's go time and you don't have a choice; we're doing this," she says.
At 6:57 p.m. Taylor delivered her second baby boy-Myles Kenneth Rock-in the back of the ambulance, in a parking lot, only 500 meters from the hospital.
Cabana says her son will have a great story to tell when he's older.
"We have the picture for him to bring in for show and tell one day. He will have a great icebreaker when someone asks him, 'What's something interesting about yourself?' He will have a tale to tell for sure," she says.
Primary Care Paramedic Sal Bertucci, who was driving the ambulance, had the most experience on the crew and made the decision to pull into the parking lot and took the lead on the delivery. He says he and his paramedic partner celebrated when it was over.
"When you do something like that, it really brings you closer, and I had no choice but to hug her in the middle of the ambulance bay; it just felt right. I think we both felt it; everybody felt it. Even the parents said, 'I think we're bonded for life,' because that is not something you do," he says.
Bertucci says this call was the highlight of his career.
"I personally never heard of it; I'm sure it's happened many times, but 17 years-that was the best call of my life. Absolutely," he says.
Taylor's husband Ryan Rock made it home before the ambulance left their house and was following it on the way to the hospital but got separated in traffic. He got to the hospital first and met everyone once they arrived there, not knowing what had happened along the way until the doors were opened.
All three paramedics involved in the delivery had been trained on baby delivery at college, but none had delivered a baby on their own prior to March 4.