A special delivery by a hospital orderly was made Wednesday as a baby was born outside the Valley Presbyterian Hospital parking lot in Van Nuys.
Monica Hannah was in labor and on her way to the hospital when her daughter, Abigail, decided to join the world just before her mother and father, Michael Hannah, made it to the building.
Twenty-year-old Yessenia Martinez, a hospital orderly who is nursing school bound, rushed to the aid of the couple to deliver the baby.
"I just felt happy because I was able to help them out," Martinez said. "I was able to take control of it myself, not being trained for any of this."
Martinez was moving a wheelchair when a parking valet rushed over to say her help was needed on the other side of the lot.
"I managed to sit her down in the wheelchair and right when she sat down, she said, 'My water broke,'" Martinez said.
The newborn was a few days overdue and her mother was scheduled to be induced, but Abigail was not waiting any longer. Her mother experienced contractions that escalated quickly. The mother wanted a natural delivery, but didn't expect one so suddenly.
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"She just had a mind of her own," Monica Hannah said. "She wanted to come."
Monica and Abigail Hannah are healthy, according to nurses at the hospital.
Martinez said she is looking forward to helping deliver more newborns in her career, but would prefer to do so inside hospitals.
