2013 in Review: Cab Driver Helps Deliver Baby at Annapolis Hotel

When a local cab driver pulled up to the Country Inn & Suites on Saturday morning, she never expected that 10 minutes later she would help deliver a baby boy.

"I felt like everyone else around me was nervous, so I had to take over," said Academy Cab driver Mia Lynch. "I’ve had seven children, so I kinda knew what to do without anybody having to tell me."

Lynch arrived at the hotel on Housley Road around 6 a.m. Saturday to discover Ingrid Ruiz, the woman she was supposed to drive to the hospital, screaming on a bench outside the hotel. Ruiz was seven months pregnant and her water had broke.

"When I got there, I thought this lady is way past going to the hospital. She needs an ambulance," Lynch said.

Ruiz and her partner, Abraham Torres, both thought the same thing.

"I was panicked at first, but as soon as I saw her water broke my whole mind changed," Torres said. "She couldn't move no more and I knew the baby was coming."

He asked the front desk clerk Brianna Karadzhova to call an ambulance.

Ruiz kept screaming, so Torres decided to check on the baby. When he took off Ruiz' pants, he saw that the baby was crowning—meaning the head started to appear.

Lynch sent Karadzhova, who was on the phone with 911, for towels.

"When [the baby] started coming out, I saw the cord was around the baby’s neck," Lynch said. "I told Abraham to take that cord off from around the baby’s neck."

She helped Torres clear his newborn son's nasal passageways and made sure he was breathing. Then, Lynch told Torres to place the baby on his mom's stomach and cover them both with towels for warmth.

Since temperatures outside were still in the 30s, Lynch and Torres carried the bench inside the hotel lobby so mother and baby could wait for the ambulance inside. The baby is fine, according to the proud father.

"He’s doing so well," Torres said. "He’s only seven months, but he’s healthy and really strong."

The couple named him Ian Jonathan Torres. They hope that he will be healthy enough to leave Anne Arundel Medical Center in about two to three weeks.

Torres said that should give them time to move into their new apartment in Arnold.

The couple was evicted from a room they rented in Annapolis on Dec. 31 after the homeowners stopped paying their own bills. They were told on Christmas Day, and Ruiz said she went to the hospital with contractions two days later.

The couple said they lost most of their belongings as a result because Torres had to work and Ruiz was unable to pack.

Patch could not reach the landlords for comment.

Ruiz and Torres said the eviction has been stressful but thankfully theBay Area Community Church, where the couple attends services, has helped tremendously by paying for two weeks at the hotel.

"My son is healthy; our family is healthy," Torres said. "I know everything’s going to get better."