Husband rushed pregnant wife to the hospital just in time — but it wasn't the doctor who delivered the baby

A hospital security guard's job goes beyond patrolling the premises. They must stay alert and ready to handle unexpected challenges, especially those involving patients. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, there’s one security guard who recently demonstrated these thoughtful qualities after he helped a couple deliver their baby in the nick of time. He is being praised for his quick-thinking after a surveillance video of Oklahoma’s Saint Francis Hospital was shared by NBC affiliate KJRH-TV.

Ashton Buchanan was outside the hospital on February 7, when her water broke. Her husband pulled the truck into the hospital’s Circle Drive, but soon they realized that the baby would have to be delivered then and there. They were short of time and there was no medical assistance in the vicinity. “I kept telling him the baby's coming out,” Ashton told Fox 23 affiliate KOKI-TV. “He was like, ‘Honey, that's impossible.’ I was like, ‘I’m not pushing, it's already pushing.’”

At this point, the surveillance video caught the panicked father-to-be walking back and forth outside the facility. Moments later, a security guard named Marricco Edmundson appeared on the screen and immediately offered to help. He radioed the medical staff. But when he arrived at where the truck was parked, he noticed that the baby was too keen and was already pushing his way out into the world. "I was afraid I was not going to be able to catch him, so I kept telling the security guard to hold him, please, please hold him; I need help to hold him, and he stayed calm the entire time," Ashton shared with KJRH-TV.

“I could see the head coming out even faster, and this time I went to cradle the head, and as I cradled the head, the shoulders came out and the whole body just dropped in my hands,” Edmundson told KOKI-TV. But there was another obstacle. Edmundson noticed that the umbilical cord was wrapped three times around the baby’s neck. So, he took his “two fingers beneath the neck and umbilical cord and loosened the cord up, and after that, the baby took a breath and started crying.”

 Soon enough, the medical staff took over and carried the 7-pound, 5-ounce baby to the hospital ward. Later, Edmundson visited Ashton’s ward to reunite with the baby, now named Theodore. “He saved us this morning. It was a godsend.” Seth told the media outlet. After all was over, the security guard credited his quick-witted action to his training as a Tulsa firefighter and EMT. He revealed that this was his “third emergency delivery.”

"This one here takes the cake. Like I said I wasn’t ready for this one and it caught me by surprise. But my training just kicked in and I did what I had to do to deliver a baby until staff arrived," Edmundson told KJRH-TV. It was his training that helped the baby push his way into the world.