A girl has given delivery to a “miracle baby” throughout Hurricane Milton after making a deadly journey to hospital whereas in labour.
Kenzie Lewellen, who was 39 weeks pregnant, witnessed the devastation from her hospital window, with a tree being ripped out of the bottom as the huge storm pounded Florida earlier this week.
She additionally wanted a caesarean part because the child boy was within the mistaken place. “I was very scared,” the first-time mom mentioned.
Milton made landfall as a Class 3 storm at about 8.30pm native time on Wednesday (1.30am UK time on Thursday), inflicting large flooding and leaving tens of millions of individuals with out energy.
A minimum of 16 folks have been confirmed lifeless in Florida within the hurricane’s aftermath, together with a minimum of 5 as a consequence of tornadoes in St Lucie County.
At the moment, the storm had not but hit the state however Ms Lewellen and her boyfriend Dewey Bennett’s home already began taking in water earlier than her contractions started.
“My mind was just running a million miles an hour, like, what am I going to do?” the 22-year-old girl mentioned. “I was very nervous.”
Please use Chrome browser for a extra accessible video participant
0:50
Florida earlier than and after Hurricane Milton
Then, after she had been in labour for greater than 4 hours at house, the couple began making their method to Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Venice.
“My mom was driving us, and it was extremely windy, so we were trying to be as cautious as possible,” Ms Lewellen mentioned.
“There was not really many people on the roads, because it was so windy outside and it was raining quite a bit.”
Picture:
Dewey Bennett together with his son Dewey Lester Bennett IV. Pic: Kenzie Lewellen
The couple had been much more on edge throughout the medical emergency as Mr Bennett’s father, additionally named Dewey, had died when Hurricane Irma slammed into Florida in 2017.
“My dad had a massive heart attack because the ambulance could not come out to us during the storm,” the 24-year-old mentioned.
“I just didn’t want to go through what I had to go through with the last hurricane back in 2017,” added Mr Bennett.
Watching a tree uproot throughout labour
When the trio arrived at hospital, just one individual could possibly be along with her. So, Ms Lewellen needed to say goodbye to her mom.
“I was very, very upset that my mom couldn’t stay, because she is my best friend and one of my biggest supporters,” she mentioned. However “we were able to FaceTime pretty much the entire time”.
Picture:
Kenzie Lewellen and Dewey Bennett. Pic: Kenzie Lewellen
She then went by labour in a room with a window view of the destruction because the storm struck the realm.
“I was telling him [Mr Bennett], I’m like, ‘Oh, that tree looks like it’s going to fly out of the ground!’ when I was labouring, because we were just watching the storm and the wind and the rain go crazy. It was definitely intense out there,” she mentioned.
“And it actually did uproot,” added, Mr Bennett, the newborn’s father.
Please use Chrome browser for a extra accessible video participant
3:48
Florida escapes worst of hurricane
Unplanned C-section
“I had so much going through my head at that point, a storm and my family,” she mentioned.
Issues with the epidural left her in excessive ache for hours till she was given anaesthesia.
“I was just on my own, by myself, and I was very scared. If I didn’t have the doctors and the nurses that I had, it would have been a whole lot worse,” she mentioned.
Dewey Lester Bennett IV was safely delivered at 11.45pm, weighing 8lbs.
“He is a miracle baby,” Ms Lewellen mentioned.
In an announcement, the chief government of Sarasota Memorial Well being Care System David Verinder mentioned: “We couldn’t be prouder of our team. They left their homes and many left their families to be here for our patients and community.”
Together with Dewey, six different infants had been born on the two Sarasota Memorial hospitals throughout Milton, Mr Verinder mentioned.
