Parents explain how a hospital refused to deliver their newborn even though the mother was in obvious labor, they later had to deliver the baby on a parking lot

United States is among the very few developed countries that doesn’t have universal healthcare program causing a lot of problems for Americans who have to pay expensive healthcare on their won which makes the whole healthcare insurance process very complicated. Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Tricare, and the Veterans Health Administration are the major programs that help Americans getting their health insurance.

Despite the fact Americans have to deal with such complicated and expensive healthcare insurance process, American healthcare providers provide quality service in most of the cases compared to majority of the countries. However, that was not the case with a couple who were denied admittance to labor and delivery earlier this month, although the mother-to-be was in obvious labor.

According to multiple reports, N. C. parents Lauren and Steve Banks went through something no parent will ever want to after they have been denied admittance to labor and delivery a couple of times at the CarolinaEast, even though Lauren was 39 weeks pregnant and she was already in obvious labor. Despite their efforts to make the doctors deliver the baby, they were turned down and headed back home.

“Without a doubt, she was in labor,” said Steve. “Anybody could tell that.”

Shortly after they got back home, Lauren’s water broke and that was already a clear sign the baby should be delivered. In the middle of the night, the couple called their neighbor to watch over their daughters who were sleeping in their bedrooms. The couple headed to the same hospital which was 30-minute drive from their home.

“She was denied admittance to labor and delivery a couple of times, and she was in obvious pain and labor, and within 30 minutes of her being home her water broke,” said Steve. “Thankfully, I was able to get a neighbor to come and watch the girls who were asleep upstairs,” Steve added. “We had to go, right then.”

But the baby ‘simply decided to make an unconventional entrance to the world’ and pushed hard. Steve and Lauren were forced to stop at a gas station parking lot on their way to the hospital, where EMT crews arrived just minutes later. Fortunately, the EMT crews helped Steve delivering the baby without any problems and both the newborn and the mother were in good and stable condition.

“They came up and saw what was happening and jumped into action,” recalled Steve. “I’m sure that they are a large part of the reason to why everything went as smoothly as it did and there were no complications. I can’t thank them enough. I watched my wife give birth to my son right there in the parking lot,” he added. “He came out and he was purple, and he wasn’t making a lot of noise. I was concerned on top of everything else going on.”

The mother and the baby were taken to the hospital by the ambulance. The hospital later offered to detail Banks’ car as an apology for what had previously happened, which the couple agreed. The hospital refused to publicly comment on the issue the Banks had that day claiming that doctors ‘were only following the protocols and guidelines for such concerns’.

Lauren later confirmed she was four centimeters dilated, but until she reached five centimeters, she wouldn’t be considered for admittance.