Oh, Baby

I'll admit that when I first started working in the ER a few years back, I envisioned opportunities to live out some of those dramatic scenes from the TV shows - cracking chests, climbing up on a moving stretcher to perform CPR, shouting "clear!" Infrequent though they may be, I have witnessed all of them at least once in between countless patients complaining of abdominal pains, med refils, or toe pain for the past 12 years.

Now, I can cross another ridiculous, "only in the ER" experience off my list.

Last night, as I was killing time by stocking an IV cart, I saw a nurse run towards the waiting room with our OB kit. My interest piqued, I followed him outside to discover a woman giving birth to her child in the backseat of a car idling in the parking lot.

With the engine running and a small crowd forming at the waiting room windows, a nurse crouched down and delivered the baby as more ER staff poured out into the lot. Having been one of the first to arrive, and thus close to the action, I was able to clamp the umbilical cord before both Mom and Baby were hoisted onto a stretcher and rushed inside.

Talk about a rush. Admittedly, I played a small role in the affair, but it nevertheless remains one of the coolest experiences I've ever been a part of. Happily, both Mom and Baby are doing well.

Needless to say, though, anything else that happened for the rest of the night was a bit of a let-down.