Special Delivery: Dad takes charge at son’s birth at St. Francis-Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS – Mother Nature won’t be denied. No matter the time or location.

That’s the situation Loree and Gerardo Cardenas of Indianapolis found themselves in at about 4 a.m. today (Sept. 22) when they pulled onto the campus at St. Francis Hospital on the city’s far south side.

Loree was in the throes of heavy labor when they parked near the hospital’s Women & Children’s Services (WCS) parking lot, the traditional entry point for expecting parents. St. Francis security officers were immediately dispatched to the scene after Gerardo enlisted the help of another visitor.

The baby was crowning – that critical stage of labor when the baby’s head remains visible.

A physician and nurses from the obstetrics, emergency and the neonatal intensive care were hurriedly working their way to the scene when Sgt. Larry Buttz made an announcement on the radio.

The Cardenases’ son had just been born, with Gerardo handling the duties. Time of arrival: 4:14 a.m.

When the medical team arrived they found the crying infant cradled in Loree’s arms. Both were immediately taken to the WCS area for examinations and admission.

Jason Emmanuel weighed 6.5 pounds and measured 21 inches. He joins four other siblings ranging in age from 7 to 1 years old.

“Things were happening so fast I didn’t have time to be scared,” recalled Gerardo. “I just did what I had to do.”

The mother had a similar take on the situation.

“It was definitely my fastest delivery and I wasn’t sure we were even going to make it to the hospital,” said Loree, who, ironically as a nursing student most recently spent her clinical education in obstetrics.

In 2009, 2,745 babies were born at St. Francis-Indianapolis. Nearly 33,450 infants have been delivered since 1996, when the Women and Children’s Services program was consolidated at the hospital’s south-side campus.