Woman has baby in hospital parking lot at ER entrance
Whitney McElravy almost made it to Butler Memorial Hospital to have her second child.
She got close, pretty close, like in the parking lot of the emergency room.
It was there that her son, Liam, was born in the front seat of her car that had just pulled up to the emergency room entrance.
Liam was born at 9 p.m., Wednesday at 7 pounds, 8 ounces and 20.5 inches, and although he was blue and cold at the time of his birth, Liam is doing well.
Both baby and his mother are back at their home in Chicora after being discharged from Butler Memorial.
Whitney and her husband Ben McElravy were on their way to the hospital when her water broke. Whitney’s contractions had just began getting stronger when they left for the hospital.
“They say your second (child) comes quicker, but I didn’t know it would be that quick,” said Whitney, who has a daughter, Kaylee, almost 2 years old.
On the way to the hospital, Ben and Whitney were dropping Kaylee off at her grandparents’ home in Brady Township, when Whitney’s mother decided to go to the hospital with them.
Heidi Nagel kept her daughter calm on the way, Whitney said.
Ben said he has no idea how he would have driven and kept Whitney calm had his mother-in-law not been on the trip with them.
There was substantial snow on the road so he had to drive well below the speed limit.
“I had tunnel vision,” he said. “I caught myself holding my breath on the way there.”
Ben called the drive “terrifying” and said his knuckles were white on the steering wheel.
