Newborn delivered during early Mother’s Day dinner at Hempfield restaurant – TribLIVE
Four strangers and an emergency dispatcher helped bring Lyndsay Platt’s second child, Leila Marie, into the world Saturday on towels laid across a restaurant floor in Hempfield.
Platt had arrived at the New City Buffet along Route 30 for an early Mother’s Day dinner with her fiancé and 18-month-old son, 10 days before her due date. The New Alexandria resident initially wasn’t overly concerned by the signals her body was sending.
“I thought I had to go to the restroom,” she said. “I was just trying to eat and thought, ‘Then I’ll get checked out.’ ”
After a trip to the ladies room provided no relief, Platt said, “I walked over almost the whole way to the table.”
It soon became apparent that Leila was ready to make her debut.
“I determined that about 10 minutes before she was born,” Platt said. “She was pretty quick. My contractions were 30 seconds apart.”
Two of the four volunteers who stepped in to help — including a Connellsville woman who delivered the baby — spoke to TribLive on Sunday.
Candy Smail of Penn Township and her 7-year-old granddaughter, Elliana, were in the restroom when Platt realized her predicament, and soon, four women jumped up from their meals to help — one supporting her on each side as she made her way to the restaurant’s rear room.
“They had to help push me,” she said.
“We just heard this girl crying and upset, and she told us she thought her water had just broke,” Smail said.
Smail was able to locate Platt’s fiancé, Jacob, and their son, Austin, at the restaurant to let them know Platt was going into labor.
Jacob called 911 about 5 p.m. to summon an ambulance. But, Platt said, “The poor paramedics didn’t have time to get there.”
In the booth next to the Platts sat Destiny Nelson and her family. Upon hearing Smail call for Jacob’s help, Nelson, of Connellsville, immediately stepped up.
“Apparently, we were all there for a reason,” Smail said. “None of us knew each other. We just came together — we were all nervous — but we did what we had to do.”
Smail said the delivery was accomplished with the emergency dispatcher providing instructions to Nelson.
‘What do you mean?’
Nelson, who is 25 and has two children, said Platt’s contractions were very strong, and only 45 seconds apart. Then, the baby was crowning. The dispatcher told Nelson she’d be delivering the baby.
“I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ I had never done this before,” Nelson said. “(Dispatch) walked me through the steps.”
Platt praised the four women who helped her, along with the restaurant staff.
“They cleared a nice-sized space for me, and they grabbed me a bunch of clean towels,” Platt said. “I think I kind of shocked them.”
“It was definitely scary,” restaurant manager Jerry Chen said. But, he added, “Everybody helped out. It was kind of smooth for (the mother).”
The delivery was a team effort between the Platts and the four women, Smail said.
“She was going into labor and we wanted to help the best we could,” she said.
As for the four women who helped, the experience after was surreal.
“Afterward, we were shaking — like, ‘Oh my God, we just did that,’ ” Smail said.
When the paramedics arrived, they cut Leila’s umbilical cord and completed an initial medical check of the newborn. To ensure the baby had a secure trip, she arrived at Greensburg’s Independence Health Westmoreland Hospital before her mother, in a separate ambulance.
“She hung out in the nursery for a little bit, and they checked over her even more,” Platt said of her daughter. “She seems like she’s going to be pretty chill, just like her brother.”
Leila weighed 6 pounds, 15 ounces and was 19 inches long when she arrived.
On Saturday, Platt never got the chance to eat before she went into labor, but she said the restaurant helped further by waiving the fee for the meals for her fiancé and son.
“That was really nice, with the whole ordeal,” she said.
After Platt and her daughter are released from the hospital, the family hopes to move to Latrobe, where Platt is on maternity leave from City Brewery. Jacob Platt works at a Unity plant specializing in plastic injection molding.
Big brother Austin Eugene similarly made his appearance after a relatively quick home stretch. “Once he decided he was done, he was done,” his mother said.
During that pregnancy, she said, her water broke while she was at a gas station, but she had time to make it to Westmoreland Hospital for the delivery.
Their more immediate goal is to catch up on their sleep.
“I’ve had a half-hour of sleep the whole night,” Lyndsay Platt said at midday Sunday, “and my fiancé ended up staying up the whole night with me.”
Connections made
After the delivery, Nelson posted on Facebook about the experience and was hoping to connect with the family who she had just helped, to make sure both mom and baby were doing OK.
Through enough shares, she was able to get in touch with Platt.
“She did amazing,” Nelson said. “There’s no way I’d have been able to do what she did. She’s one tough mama, that’s for sure.”
Smail felt blessed after the whole ordeal.
“I’m really happy, I’m happy with how it all ended,” Smail said. “I feel really proud of everybody: the mom, the baby, the dad.
“I’m really blessed with everybody, how we all came together and did a good deed for her.”
Nelson said she’s still shocked with everything that had happened.
“It’s not every day you can say you delivered some random woman’s baby in the middle of a restaurant,” Nelson said. “It’s an experience I’ll never forget. I’ll remember the bond of the four women who jumped and helped to deliver that baby safely.”
Jeff Himler and Kellen Stepler are TribLive staff writers. Himler can be reached at jh*****@******ve.com and Stepler at ks******@******ve.com.
