SOUTH ABINGTON TOWNSHIP -- It was a special delivery at a gas station early Thursday morning in Lackawanna County -- a healthy baby girl!
When mom couldn't make it to the hospital, emergency responders stepped in helping to deliver the baby in the parking lot.
That special delivery didn't cause much of a fuss. The clerks at the Exxon on Northern Boulevard didn't even know it was happening when they were opening up for the day around 6 a.m. Thursday.
For EMTs who helped deliver that baby girl, it's a day they will never forget.
"Mom was in the backseat of the car, she was already crowning, we, I came out of the truck, came around to the side of mom's vehicle, and the baby was being delivered and laid on her chest," recalled Chinchilla Hose Company EMT Melissa Hemmler.
Mom, Dad, and a birthing coach called a doula got some much-needed help from EMTs Melissa Hemmler and Mike Owens. The partners were just starting their shift for Chinchilla Hose Company's ambulance when they got the call to go to the gas station.
The clerks at Exxon missed the birth in their parking lot. It happened just a few minutes before the gas station opened for the day. At 6:05 a.m., it was four below zero outside.
"That's our biggest concern, more than anything. especially, everybody's wet, cold, exposed, getting them warm, getting them dry, getting them in the ambulance, and getting them to the hospital," Hemmler said.
The baby girl arrived a few weeks early weighing in at 6 pounds, 9 ounces and all things considered, in very good condition.
"Mom's doing well, she was excited, it was her second so she had already been through this rodeo. She got me through it, being my first, she did better than I did," Hemmler added.
In official EMT lingo, Chinchilla Hose Company earned a "stork pin" for their assistance in delivering the baby girl.
While it's Melissa's first, Mike Owens has helped deliver four babies in his 20 years on an ambulance.
"I look back from all the calls that I've done and this is one of the better days," Owens said.
Mom and Dad didn't want to talk to us on camera but emergency officials tell us they were safely taken to a hospital in Scranton and all are doing well.