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Woman Stuck In Traffic Gives Birth On Storrow Drive

BOSTON (CBS) - A car fire on Storrow Drive late Monday night made for an extremely close call for a mother in labor stuck in gridlock traffic.

With the off ramp closed, dad quickly jumps out the car and signaled for help to a state trooper.

When EMT's Sean Smith and Rodney Oates arrived they immediately got mom out of her car and onto a stretcher. "It was pretty intense. She said it's coming out," Cataldo EMT Sean Smith said.

car-fire
The car fire on Storrow Drive. (Photo credit - MassDOT)

Both Sean and Rodney say they didn't have any time to spare. It only took six minutes and three big pushes from mom and the baby's head began to show. "I realize right then and there we were not going anywhere the baby was coming now," Oates said.

Rodney was there to catch the baby, open the airway and the baby started crying. The baby boy was born happy and healthy. "I asked the father if he wanted to cut the cord, he said 'absolutely,'" Smith said.

storrow drive birth emts
Rodney Oates and Sean Smith (Photo credit - Paul Burton/WBZ)

Both Sean and Rodney were given certificates of appreciation. "It was a beautiful sight. It was a very rewarding experience," Oates said.

Mom, dad and baby were taken to Massachusetts General Hospital and are doing well.

"We are extremely grateful," Sean Smith said. "In this field you have a lot of gloom and doom calls and not many are on the positive side. To be called to a call like this and experience a true miracle, I mean there's nothing like the birth of a baby."

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