11 Good News Stories: Babies In A Hurry; An Extraordinary Reunion

ACROSS AMERICA — Babies can’t always wait for the weather to clear to come into the world.

It had been snowing all night when Antonio Castillo Alves came off the night shift in Bound Brook, New Jersey. He found his wife, Sara, having contractions, but it was their second child on the way, “so we think we are good,” Alves said.

They decided to take showers before going to the hospital.

“I don’t know,” his wife called, “I think he’s coming.”

Relax and breathe, Alves told her. He called 911, and then her water broke. Bound Brook Police Sgt. Thomas Burgin, a father himself, jumped into action to help deliver the baby boy. » By Alexis Tarrazi for Bound Brook, New Jersey Patch

A few days later and halfway across the country, plows were having trouble keeping up with what turned out to be about 8 inches of wind-whipped snow in the Chicago area.

A pregnant woman and her husband pulled into a parking lot in Plainfield, Illinois, at 7:31 a.m. Wednesday. They were on their way to the hospital, but their daughter wouldn’t wait. Plainfield firefighters arrived, shrouding the car in a makeshift tent to give them privacy. The baby was born 10 minutes later.

"It was unbelievable out there," Plainfield Fire Chief Jon Stratton told Patch. "You had everything going against you. We took extra personnel to the hospital, but hopefully, everything pans out and everything works out with the family. They'll have a crazy story." » By Emily Rosca for Plainfield, Illinois, Patch

Give A Boy A Fishing Pole …

Noah Savin is only 7, but his dad says he’s been fishing nearly all of his young life. The Middlebury, Connecticut, boy is good at it, too. He recently out-fished competitors as old as 16 and brought home a first-place trophy in a statewide fishing competition that ranks participants on the number of fish species they caught over the course of the year. Noah’s count: 17. “He's been doing fishing like this ever since he was old enough to hold a kiddie fishing rod," proud dad Harris Savin said. "The minute he could hold a fishing rod, he was holding a fishing rod." » By Gabby DeBenedictis for Middlebury, Connecticut, Patch

Setting It Right

“It wasn’t easy to hear what happened down there,” Major League Baseball’s Kevin Moss said after learning someone had shot the historical marker in baseball legend Jackie Robinson’s hometown of Cairo, Georgia. MLB gave $40,000 to make things right, not only replacing the damaged marker and adding a duplicate at the town library, but also creating an endowment fund in Robinson’s memory. Moss said he’s “proud to work for a company that stands by a certain set of values, not only with action, but also with dollars." » By Nikki Gaskins for Dacula, Georgia, Patch

Second Chances

Four years ago, Jacob Pruitt was accepted to DUI Court in Cobb County, Georgia. He had been convicted twice for drunken driving in four months, and graduated from the DUI Court program 15 months later. He was in court again last month, this time to be sworn in as an attorney — by the DUI Court judge. “I don't know what I expected from this program, or if I came into it with any solid expectations, but what I got though was a second chance. I don't know any people who've led such a charmed life that they haven't made any serious mistakes, but when I got here, I'd been making them for years," Pruitt said. "Thank you for giving me the tools I needed so I could earn the second chances that others were willing to offer me." » By Kara McIntyre for Marietta, Georgia, Patch

Extraordinary Class Reunion

Rob Latzsch has battled kidney failure for years after contracting a flesh-eating bacteria from the ocean in 2015. Multiple rounds of antibiotics killed the disease, but at the cost of damaging his kidney to the point he’s been on dialysis and is on the transplant waiting list. None of his family members were a match. After Latzsch shared his plight on Facebook, he got an unexpected reply from a former elementary school classmate, a mother of three, he hadn’t spoken to in years but who remembered Latzsch had been kind to her. And guess what? The classmate was a match. » By Nikki Gaskins for Johns Creek, Georgia, Patch

Speaking Of Transplants …

A Maryland man who received the world's first pig heart transplant at the University of Maryland Medicine continues to amaze doctors. David Bennett, 57, has now lived longer than the first person to receive the world's first human heart transplant in 1967, doctors said. Nearly four weeks after surgery, his heart is “showing no signs of rejection,” said Muhammad M. Mohiuddin, MD, professor of surgery at UMSOM. “ In fact, it's beating so well, we have to give drugs to slow it down." » By Nikki Gaskins for Baltimore Patch

Love For Maggie

There are many things about 5-year-old Maggie DeVries that are similar to other children her age — a love for gymnastics, being part of a cheer team, and getting started in Girl Scouts, for example. There’s a big difference, too — a rare, inoperable brain tumor in her brain stem, which controls functions such as breathing and heart rate, and the nerves and muscles that help people see, hear, walk, talk and eat. Only 200 or 300 kids a year are diagnosed with her condition, diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, or DIPG. Maggie has a rough road ahead of her, made a little smoother by the outpouring of love and support from her neighbors. » By TJ Kremer III for Frankfort, Illinois, Patch

An Inspiration

In Glenview, Illinois, Kate Gregory knows firsthand that kids who are battling life-threatening diseases are among the strongest people around. Her younger brother, Luke, has been battling stage 4 alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, an aggressive form of cancer, since 2016. Gregory, who recently received a scholarship under a program for siblings of kids with pediatric cancer, said her brother inspired her career to become a pediatric oncologist. » By Eric DeGrechie for Glenview, Illinois, Patch

‘Goodnight Moon’ And A ‘Literary Hug’

Alexandria, Virginia, artist Lisa Schumaier says her intent is to give “a literary hug” with her re-creation of “Goodnight Moon,” the beloved 1947 children’s book written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd. The installation at a local art center “brings us back to when we were young and snuggled in bed while a grown-up read us to sleep, or when we were doing the same with our children,” Schumaier said. » By Emily Leayman for Old Town Alexandria, Patch

The Tales This Cat Could Tell

Denise Cilley will never know how her cat, Ashes, traveled 1,400 miles to Florida nearly seven years ago. She slipped out of the family’s home in Maine in 2015 when she was a year old. To make matters worse, Ashes disappeared on Cilley’s daughter's 10th birthday — and to add more insult to that injury, it was the second year in a row a cat had vanished on the girl’s special day. The family put the word out that Ashes was missing and searched the neighborhood, which is surrounded by wilderness, but ultimately concluded a predator had probably killed her. Then, out of the blue on Jan. 22, Cilley got a call from Florida, and the caller said, “We have your cat.” The moral to the story: “Microchips work,” Cilley said. » By Tiffany Razzano for Orlando, Florida, Patch

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