A couple from Crown Point, Indiana, recently welcomed a new baby under circumstances their family hopes no other parents have to face. While the newborn is healthy and thriving, the journey was far from ideal.
Mercedes Wells found herself being wheeled out of Franciscan Health Crown Point Hospital on Sunday, still in the throes of labor contractions.
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According to her family, the hospital staff decided to discharge Mercedes, a mother of several children, advising her to return home until her labor advanced further.
Cherise Thompson, Mercedes’ sister-in-law, was aware that Mercedes had been admitted to the hospital. However, she was unprepared for the shocking news she would soon receive.
“On Sunday morning, I woke up to a flood of frantic messages from my mother, urging me to call her immediately,” Cherise recounted. “She was yelling, ‘Your brother just delivered the baby!’ I was completely stunned and asked, ‘What do you mean?!'”
Once Mercedes was discharged, her brother Leon took charge, helping her into their vehicle to seek out another hospital for assistance.
Eight minutes into their drive, Leon and Mercedes’ daughter was born on the side of the road, delivered by her father.
“He grabbed, like, a blanket, and then, put the baby on Mercedes’ chest, my niece on her chest, and drove the rest of the way to the hospital, to Munster Community,” Cherise said.
Doctors at Munster Community Hospital took over, providing the care Cherise says Mercedes pleaded for in Crown Point.
“Mercedes begged her. She begged her,” Cherise said, referring to the nurse. “She said, ‘I’m really in active labor. I can feel it, contractions as I walk. I mean my pain. I’m telling you; I can feel it.’ And she just ignored her.”
The family is now calling for accountability.
“I want there to be some sort of change so that other families don’t have to experience this,” said Cherise.
Mercedes’ brother-in-law, Lance Thompson Jr, also weighed in.
“If it implements change, implements strength, implements courage for other women that’s going through this,” Lance said, “Then, that’s what I’m looking for, personally.”
Franciscan Health Crown Point said in a statement, in part, “The video and the comments it has generated are deeply troubling, and we understand the concern this has raised. The video is just one part of the information we are reviewing as part of a thorough investigation into this alleged incident.”
The parents, with their attorney, are planning to hold a news conference on Tuesday morning to talk about how they plan to pursue justice in this case.
As for the couple’s newborn daughter, Cherise says she and mom are doing well, and that her niece has a couple of heroes as parents.
