CARLISLE, Pa. (WHP) \u2014 Imagine going into labor a month early, during a major snowstorm, and delivering your first baby in the back of a tractor-trailer.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s exactly what happened to one Pennsylvania family. What was supposed to be a routine stop during a snowstorm quickly turned into an emergency delivery.<\/p>\n
On Jan. 25, truck driver Davidson Etienne said the roads in Carlisle were completely covered in snow. The couple had been staying at a motel after finishing a few deliveries. They weren’t expecting their baby for another month.<\/p>\n
Then, her water broke.<\/p>\n
“I was very scared,” Etienne’s wife, Sarafina Boutin Etienne, said, “I say, what are we going to do?”<\/p>\n
With snow piling up and roads shutting down, Etienne said he had to make a split decision.<\/p>\n
“I decided to take my semi-truck and then bring her to the hospital,” he said.<\/p>\n
Etienne followed his GPS toward the Pennsylvania Turnpike, but the state police stopped him; the highway was shut down. He tried to find another route, but eventually lost signal.<\/p>\n
By that point, his wife was in active labor.<\/p>\n
“The baby is about to come,” Etienne said. “And I say, you can go to the sleeper, and then take a clean blanket. If you feel like pushing, just push the baby.”<\/p>\n
But she couldn’t do it alone.<\/p>\n
“She kept yelling, and she tried to push by herself. And then she said, ‘David, stop the truck because I feel something.'”<\/p>\n
Etienne said he pulled over in the middle of the road and ran to the back of the truck to help his wife.<\/p>\n
“When I go, go in the back, I see her feet come out,” he said.<\/p>\n
He helped deliver their baby girl right in the back of his semi until emergency crews arrived.<\/p>\n
But when she was born, she wasn’t crying.<\/p>\n
“The baby is not crying, not breathing,” he said.<\/p>\n
Their newborn was rushed to the hospital, where doctors told them she had a hole in her heart and was suffering respiratory failure. They were told she had a 15% chance of surviving.<\/p>\n
“I was very scared,” Etienne said.<\/p>\n
“Maybe she’s gonna die,” his wife added. “I was very scared.”<\/p>\n
However, after almost a month in the NICU at Penn State Health, their miracle baby fought back. She was released last week and is now home with her parents.<\/p>\n
The family said it\u2019s a delivery they\u2019ll always remember, and will probably never look at a snowstorm the same way again<\/p>\n
“I’m still scared for my baby, I’m happy to have her, and I hope everything is is gonna be great for me, for us,” Etienne said.<\/p>\n