SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) – An Auburn mother gave birth inside the parking garage at UC Davis Medical Center on St. Patrick’s Day with the help of an off-duty nurse from another hospital.

Madison Fritter was ready to welcome her second baby into the world — just not two weeks early and not in any place other than a hospital bed.

“I told my husband, ‘Wake up, my water broke!’ He’s like, ‘What, are you serious?’ And then at that time, I called my mom and my sister,” Fritter told FOX40.

A few hours and a few intense contractions later, Fritter and her family were on their way to meet their bundle of joy, only this bundle had bigger plans of his own.

“It didn’t feel ever like an emergency getting there until we parked up to the hospital and we go to the parking garage,” Fritter recalled. “We get out and I have my next contraction and I’m like, ‘He’s coming you guys!’ He started crowning.”

As the commotion was erupting in the garage, Adventist Health labor and delivery nurse Jenna Ricks was facing a dilemma of her own.

“I gave birth at UC Davis a week before and my son and I — Miles that’s my son— we came home and then he got really sick at home,” Ricks told FOX40. “So we brought him back to the emergency room. Things started making a change for the better.”

Ricks was headed back home when she noticed several other nurses run to a woman on the ground covered in blankets.

“Then I realize they are laying right behind my car and so I can’t leave. And then I hear, ‘I’m going to need a shoelace!'” Ricks recalled. “And my L&D instinct kicks in and I’m like, there’s only one reason why you would need a shoelace. And then I hear the word ‘delivery’ and I immediately think, ‘OK, I have to get involved.'”

“She was just there for me,” Fritter said. “Everyone was there for me at the right time.”

Shortly after, Maverick Fritter was born healthy, happy and 8 pounds, 2 ounces.

It was a moment Fritter did not think her family would get to see during COVID-19.

“I wasn’t going to have my whole support team. I would have my husband, of course, but I wasn’t going to have my mom and my sister with me,” Fritter said. “And so I looked at them and said, ‘You guys were here for it.’ We were just so excited.” 

The moment was also heartwarming for the nurse who came to the rescue.

“She really needed me in that moment to be safe and she was put there for me to give me that last extra strength to get through what I needed to with my son,” Ricks said.

Fritter said they chose the perfect name for their son. Maverick means independence and doing things the unconventional way.

Ricks said she and Fritter both share a very strong bond after this moment.