DRASTIC MEASURES

Woman Locked Out of Hospital Gives Birth Outside, Uses COVID Mask on Umbilical Cord

The husband said face masks his grandmother had knitted for family members proved to be a life-saver—but in an entirely different situation than expected.

A Kentucky couple delivered their baby in a hospital parking lot over the weekend and used a hand-knitted COVID-19 mask to tie off the umbilical cord after arriving to find the doors locked. “We had no idea why, and it was probably 30 or 40 degrees out,” David Patrick told the Louisville Courier-Journal of the May 9 ordeal. He said he and his wife, Sarah, frantically tried to find a way in to the hospital until her water broke and it became clear they would have to have the baby outside in the parking lot. “I’m not a doctor. I don’t have a number to reach anyone in the building. We’re basically in a concrete wilderness,” David said, adding that he had decided to call 911.

“I put my phone speaker and set it down. My wife is screaming... ‘He’s coming! He’s coming!’” Navi Bond Patrick was born a short time later, weighing in at 6 pounds 13 ounces. When the 911 dispatcher instructed David to tie off the umbilical cord, he said he realized he didn’t have any shoelaces or string, but he did remember that “my grandmother had knitted COVID-19 masks for the family.” He said he “found a mask and rolled it like a really tight tortilla” to tie the umbilical cord. He said nurses eventually came out and helped the baby and mother inside, and ultimately the whole thing ended up being “the least complicated delivery” of the family’s three kids.