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National Guard, Local EMTs Help Deliver Blizzard Babies

WORCESTER/KINGSTON (CBS) – While almost everything shuts down in a blizzard, some events just can't wait.

Such was the case Saturday morning.

Early Saturday morning in Worcester, the Mass. National Guard helped Worcester EMS crews get to a home and deliver a baby.

Ericka Bueno went into labor and called 911 from her home on Harlem Street on Vernon Hill.

Responding EMTs couldn't get up the steep hill. Fortunately, National Guard members were nearby with snow plows and a humvee.

They managed to transport the EMTs to the house, where baby Nohely was delivered.

Bueno said she was concerned crews wouldn't be able to get to her, but once they made it, she wasn't worried.

"If they made it to the house, then they were going to be able to get us out," she said.

Baby and mom are both doing well at UMass Memorial Hospital.

In a separate incident, at 4:07 a.m., Kingston Fire Chief Robert Heath says a woman on Pembroke Street gave birth to a baby girl.

Heath says they received the call about 3:30 a.m. that the woman was in labor about two miles away from the fire station.

Listen: WBZ NewsRadio 1030 Producer Fausto Menard spoke with Chief Robert Heath shortly after the delivery

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Because of road conditions and downed trees, it took crews nearly a half hour to arrive at the house, which was just in time.

"We had great assistance from the highway department clearing the way, taking the tree and power lines out," the chief explained.

The chief says police officers on scene assisted with the delivery as well.

Mom and baby were taken to the hospital and are said to be doing well.

Chief Heath says the delivery was a first for him.

"We've had deliveries at home and in vehicles on the side of the road, but never during a blizzard."

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