If you’re going to a gas station, one might expect that you’re getting…well, gas. Or maybe a 2-for-1 hot dog deal. But one things for sure: you’re not expecting someone to be delivering a baby in the gas station parking lot.
Last Thursday, in Chantilly, Va., two Enterprise Rent-A-Car employees helped a Virginia mother deliver her baby at a Shell gas station.
Nick Appel and Katy Rabassa were filling up their company’s vehicles with gas when Appel noticed something out of the ordinary.
"We were getting gas. As we were pulling out of the gas station, Nick said, ‘I think they're having a baby right there,’” Rabassa told Fox 5.
Patricia Shaefer had only been in labor for about an hour, but was ready to deliver her baby as her husband Ben was attempting to get to the hospital. After realizing time was running out, Ben pulled into the gas station parking lot realizing it was the best delivery spot he was going to find.
"I think I cut off about 14 people,” Ben Shaefer said. “Just threw it in park as soon as we got into the gas staton and ran around and tried not to freak out!"
"The thought hadn't even crossed my mind that we weren't going to make it to the hospital,” Patricia Shaefer told Fox 5. “I'm thinking we're going to get there and maybe have the baby in the lobby, but I wasn't even thinking about the worst case scenario yet."
The worst case scenario did take place, but thankfully Rabassa and Appel were there to help the couple. Rabassa took the phone from Ben to help talk with the 911 operator and Appel offered his shoe laces to ‘tie off the umbilical cord.’
"I think there was a minute of just like, 'There's a baby here. Like, this just happened.’ You guys had been planning and know that it was coming, but that's not how my morning was starting,” Rabassa said.
It only took three minutes for little Mackenzie Shaefer to make her way into this world. By the time emergency vehicles arrived, the family was all in smiles.
Even with all the chaos involved, the Shaefer family came out of the situation safely. They are now home with Mackenzie who is a "healthy and happy baby" getting to know her family, according to Fox 5.