Some of the calls that firefighters respond to end up changing their lives. The job usually entails putting out fires and rescuing people from burning buildings, but this situation that firefighter Marc Hadden dealt with was more unusual. This time, when Hadden saved someone’s life, it changed his own life as well. In 2011, Hadden responded to a call in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, regarding a woman who was experiencing severe abdominal pain. It turned out the woman was about to give birth — and the baby eventually came to be Hadden’s child.
Hadden described that day in November as a typically slow day.
“I will never forget that day. It was a day when a lot of things came full circle,” Hadden told CNN.
He was having dinner, and there hadn’t been any activity that day yet. Having no calls created a sense of anticipation that was fitting for what happened next. The call they received was from a woman who reported that she had severe pains in her abdomen.
When the emergency personnel arrived, they discovered that the woman was about to give birth. Unfortunately, the woman had been in labor for too long, and there wasn’t enough time to take her to the hospital. The firefighters realized that the situation was critical. They gave her oxygen, plugged in some intravenous equipment and loaded her into the ambulance.
However, before the ambulance could leave, Hadden’s partner called out that the baby was coming already, so they had to deliver it in the ambulance. The baby came out so quickly they didn’t even have time to cut the woman’s clothes.
Recalling the incident, Hadden told TODAY, “It was a normal slow day in November. We were sitting down to eat, hadn’t had a call all day.” He added that soon enough, he got a call about a woman who was complaining of severe abdominal pain and immediately left to help her. As soon as Hadden and the other firefighters were on the scene, they quickly realized the woman was actually in labor.
“It was a pretty serious call for us,” Hadden continued. “We got her on some oxygen, started some IVs and literally as we were getting ready to leave the parking lot in the ambulance, my partner said, ‘We’re about to deliver a baby right here.’ We had no time to prepare. Before we could do anything — we hadn’t even cut her clothes — Gracie came right out. Immediately she was handed to me.”
