Nurse steps in to help deliver baby in parking garage

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    SACRAMENTO (KOVR) — An Auburn woman has quite the delivery story after she gave birth in a hospital parking garage.

There have been plenty of parents-to-be who have pulled into the UC Davis Medical Center’s parking garage.

One of them being Madison Fritter on St. Patrick’s Day.

“It was about 1:30 a.m. and I woke up and my water broke. So I wake up my husband and he goes, “Are you serious,” because it was about two weeks early,” Fritter said.

After laboring at home for about home for eight hours, it was time to hit the road to UC Davis with her mom, sister, and husband to the hospital.

As soon as they parked inside the garage heading to check-in, it was time.

“I’m realizing, ‘Oh my gosh, the baby is coming,’” Fritter said.

Getting to a hospital bed wasn’t an option. Fritter’s second child was going to be born right then and there in the garage.

As help came to her side, there’s someone else in the garage hearing the commotion: Jenna Ricks.

“And then I hear ‘I need a shoelace.’ And, I was like, there’s only one thing that you would need a shoelace for in the medical world,” Ricks said.

Ricks knows this because she’s a labor and delivery nurse at Adventist Health Lodi Memorial. She was at UC Davis at the same time for her own medical worries. Her newborn son, who Ricks gave birth to the week before, was brought back for treatment.

“Miles, my son, got really, really sick and we ended up coming back to the emergency department. He spent a few days in the NICU,” Ricks said.

Ricks rushed over to help inside the garage in the best way she knows how to, by putting her training to work.

“The nurse that had run over was like, ‘Oh my God! Thank God, you’re here this is my worst nightmare. You’re in charge now. I was like ‘okay I got this,’” Ricks said.

Ricks made sure this new mom and baby were okay and stayed with her until the paramedics could get Fritter inside the hospital.

Fritter told CBS13 that her sister caught her baby boy as soon as he was born.

“I said ‘I did it? This is happening? Like I just gave birth in a parking garage?’” Fritter said.

It’s a moment that still feels too surreal weeks later.

“It was amazing. I felt like I was on an episode of ‘This Is Us,’” Fritter said.

“What are the odds of her dropping right behind my car and me getting help up in the pediatric unit. Had I been a few seconds or few minutes earlier I would have missed it,” Ricks said.

An unbreakable bond formed in an unbelievable moment also bringing Ricks strength during her newborn son’s stay at the hospital.

“It was a celestial moment like it was something meant to be. She needed me to make sure she didn’t bleed out or hemorrhage or just needed me to be there to feel safe and be healthy,” Ricks said.

“And I really needed her to give me that last bit of strength to get through his stay. It really lifted my spirits and reminded me that I love what I do.”

Ricks’ son Miles is back home and is doing well as is Fritter’s son who is aptly named Maverick.

The two are now good friends and expect to have plenty of playdates lined up once the pandemic is over.

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