A Georgia State Patrol trooper helped a husband and wife deliver a baby on the shoulder of a rural highway in South Georgia on Sunday, according to news reports.
"The chance that we were in the same place at the same time, it just goes to show God works in mysterious ways," Trooper Nick Johnson told WMAZ 13 News.
Johnson, a father of three and a trooper for two years in Thomasville, was patrolling State Route 38, also known as U.S. 84, when a car sped past him at nearly 90 miles per hour.
After catching up to the vehicle, Johnson said the driver slowed and called out his window for help.
“Hey, can you help me? My wife is in labor right now,” the man told Johnson, according to the CBS affiliate. “He said they didn’t think they were going to make it,” Johnson said.
Parked along the side of the Wiregrass Georgia Parkway, Johnson said he could hear the driver’s wife scream in pain, WMAZ reported.
He offered to help comfort her and returned to his cruiser to call for an ambulance. Moments later, the husband hurried around the car to Johnson’s window.
“He said, ‘I see the head coming out.’ By the time I walked over, the baby was already out. It was kind of like a whoa moment, but then EMS arrived. It was eventful,” Johnson told WMAZ.
“Things ... could have went wrong, and I’m just lucky I was there. I wouldn’t look at myself as a hero, but I know my children look at me as that, so whether I’m a hero to that family or children, that’s a blessing in its own.”
Johnson didn’t reveal the identity of the couple but said he didn’t believe they would have made it to the hospital in time.
“Looking at the time that it took, it was about eight to nine minutes, and I knew for a fact where the hospital was in Thomas County — it was probably another 20- to 25-minute drive,” he told WMAZ.
State Route 38 cuts through Bainbridge, Cairo, Valdosta, Waycross and Hinesville, ending at Interstate 95.
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