Firefighter saves newborn’s life during complicated home birth

CHEROKEE COUNTY, NC – (WCBD) – A mother’s birth plan was thrown out the window when her labor came on faster than expected. She couldn’t make it to the hospital, and her baby could’ve died during delivery if not for the help of one local firefighter.

Mary Davis says, “I thought I had had a still born baby, because that’s how she looked. There was nothing… She was just lifeless.”

Davis went into labor about a week before her due date, and it started so quickly she did not have any other choice but to have the baby at home.

She says, “We thought it was false labor, I didn’t actually think I was in labor. It just hit all of the sudden, and it was excruciating.”

They called 911 and the Macedonia volunteer firefighters were the first on scene.

Macedonia Battalion Chief Jerry Hush says, “The EMS was quite a ways out and we had to deliver the baby.”

But it wasn’t that easy. The baby was breech and when they finally got her out, she wasn’t breathing.

Davis says, “She was blue, her lips were blue, and she wasn’t breathing, and that’s when you could start to see the worry in everyone’s eyes, you know?”

Hush says, “I was concerned. There’s a few minutes that I was really concerned.”

But Hush wouldn’t give up and after a few minutes… the baby was breathing and crying.

Davis says, “It was a big relief, everyone was hollering, everybody was screaming and hollering. It was like the biggest relief ever.”

She calls Chief Hush a hero.

Davis says, “If it wasn’t for him, she wouldn’t be here. If it wasn’t for him and the quick thinking of all the responders, she wouldn’t be here.”

But, Hush said no thanks are needed.

He says, “I’m just doing my job, as any other fireman would do. To me, I think Mary’s the true hero, giving birth to a complicated birth. She’s the real hero, not me, I was just there to assist.”

EMS did bring mom and baby to the hospital afterward and both have a clean bill of health. The newborn is a six pound, seven ounce little girl named Kyndall and her mom calls her a “miracle baby”.