Little Baby, Big Thanks for Maryland Rescuers

Because she wasn't due to deliver her second child for a few weeks, Lori Perez had no problem with her husband having a night out with his friends.

Apparently no one told the baby about the plan for a quiet evening at home.

Ms. Perez, now an assistant professor of psychology at Anne Arundel Community College, went into labor nearly three weeks before her due date. With the help of responders from Jacobsville Volunteer Fire Company in Pasadena, she delivered the baby, Adrian Ramon Lee Perez, in her Pasadena home April 6, 2005.

As a thank-you, Ms. Perez set up a scholarship honoring the fire company for their help on that important night.

"My husband and I would have been lost, completely," she said.

Ms. Perez had just finished talking with her 4-year-old son, Cristian, about what to expect when she had the baby.

She told him that they'd pack bags, hers for the hospital and his for an overnight stay and grandma's. And they ordered pizza; the delivery person was late.

"Had he taken any longer, it probably would have been him that delivered the baby," she said with a laugh.

Ms. Perez knew she was in trouble when her water broke at about 8:30 while she was doing laundry. She had just spoken to her husband, Manny, and told him not to worry.

"As soon as I hung up the phone with him, my water broke," she said.

She called again and asked him to call 911. Instead, he called a neighbor her to check in on Ms. Perez, unaware of how far along she was.

She sent Cristian to his room so he wouldn't see her go through contractions and called 911 herself. The operator was trying to be helpful, but wasn't able to provide much comfort.

"Obviously this was a man who had never been in labor. Every time I had a contraction I had to put the phone away from me," she said. "I'm in too much pain to listen."

When the neighbor came by, Ms. Perez asked her to take Cristian to her home.

Manny came in minutes later and saw the chaotic scene. The dogs were barking, Cristian was jumping up and down, their neighbor was nervously talking to a 911 operator and the baby was crowning.

"It was really scary," Mr. Perez said, noting that he saw the baby's head. The 911 operator was instructing him on how to deliver the baby when paramedics knocked at the door.

Visions of TV deliveries flashed in his mind, and Mr. Perez worried not so much about delivering the baby, but that the baby would need help that he wouldn't know to or be able to give.

"As soon as the paramedics got there, all my worries were gone and I was so excited," he said.

Eight emergency responders trooped into her bedroom and delivered the baby at 9 p.m., just half an hour after Ms. Perez's water broke.

"I would think it would be much more hectic than it was, but it was actually really calming," she said this week.

When most people think of firefighters, they think of "men with axes," Ms. Perez said.

But Jim Crum, Todd Druses, Erik Dklau, paramedic crew members Ron Hodges, Mike Carlson and Josh Lombard and Mike McLaughlin and Chris Fowler from the ambulance crew were very comforting and calm.

"I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. These were like the best guys. I was very comfortable, I felt very well taken care of," she said. "You could tell that they really cared about me, and the baby. I was like their main focus."

Ms. Perez has thought about the men who helped her that night every day and she's always wanted to thank them. She thought a scholarship in their name would be just right.

"It's like a thank you and kind of an honor I wanted to bestow on them," she said.

The deadline to apply for the scholarship is Friday, and it will be applied to the spring semester. Preference will be given to career and volunteer firefighters, those enrolled in an EMT program, fire management or business management degree programs.