Elyssa Villalobos was pregnant with her second baby and her due date was two weeks away on November 14th, the same date as her aunt Angela’s birthday. She and her family were going through some emotional times with the recent passing of their grandmother two weeks earlier. Elyssa was busy caring for her 4-year-old son, planning a funeral and anxiously awaiting the arrival of her new daughter.
On the morning of November 1st Elyssa started having contractions and pressure, her instincts told her it was time. She started yelling for her sister who was home in the other room, she was staying with the family for the funeral. Elyssa’s sister told her she thought they could make it to the hospital, telling her to give it a while as they were probably just Braxton-hicks. The pressure seemed to be getting worse and with her husband gone at work and her she yelled to her sister and told her to call 911. American
Medical Response sent out an Ambulance call for Woman in Labor, the team arrived with 2 paramedics (Ismael Gonzalez & Will Rodriguez) and EMT (Ruben Sarmiento). They immediately started caring for her, making sure she was comfortable and calming her through the stressful situation. While in transit to Kaiser Ontario there were a few times she thought that the baby had come and when they checked they said “no, she’s not here yet but we are ready, and you are going to be fine if this happens now”. With so much pressure she had to push, and she told them to check again and to Ismael and Will’s surprise they were now delivering baby Ella Angela!! Their training immediately kicked in and they started assessing baby Ella and mom and caring for them until they reached the hospital.
“The Paramedics were so calm and helpful, I knew they were there to support me, I couldn’t have asked for a better team to have gone through this with. They stayed to make sure I was cared for at the hospital and made sure I was able to call my husband and let him know we were ok, and that Ella was born. My husband was rushing through traffic from his job at the VA hospital in West LA. They held my hand through the contractions and told me “you’re going to be ok you can do this, were here to help you.” The crew reminded me to stay calm and to breath and to let them know if I needed anything,” Elyssa Villalobos said.
“With so much negative that comes along with our jobs on a daily basis its nice to be a part of something so positive that we will remember forever”, Will Rodriguez said. Nearly two months later Ella (named after her great Aunt which she would have shared a birthday with had she come on time) is happy and healthy. The Villalobos family will have quite the story to share with her when she gets a bit older. The AMR crew that delivered baby Ella is happy to share that same story as well.