New details emerge in highway birth after mother’s hospital discharge
Couple questions hospital's ongoing investigation
A south suburban couple is grateful their newborn daughter is OK. Earlier this week, they told us how they were discharged from Franciscan Health Crown Point.
CROWN POINT, Ind. - A northwest Indiana family is speaking out after they say a hospital sent a pregnant mother home — only for her to give birth minutes later on the highway.
What we know:
Leon and Mercedes Wells were on their way back from a trip when Mercedes began having contractions. The couple immediately headed to Franciscan Health Crown Point and called ahead to alert staff.
Mercedes, 38, is considered a high-risk pregnancy. Their first child was born at Franciscan’s former location, before the new facility opened. But this time, the couple says the experience was drastically different.
According to the Wells family, Mercedes spent six hours inside the hospital. She says that moments before staff discharged her, her water broke. Despite that, Mercedes says a nurse insisted she wasn’t dilated enough — and that the couple never saw a doctor.
Eight minutes after Mercedes was wheeled out of the hospital’s front doors, she went into full labor on the highway. Leon was forced to deliver their baby girl, Alena, inside the family’s pickup truck.
RELATED: After highway birth, couple hires attorney to push for changes at Indiana hospital
Baby Alena is now doing well, but her parents say the ordeal never should have happened.
The hospital released a statement after video of the roadside birth circulated online. Franciscan Health acknowledged disparities in healthcare outcomes, stated it strives to be part of the solution, and said a "thorough investigation" is underway.
But the Wells family is questioning that process. They say they haven’t been contacted by the hospital and don’t understand how an investigation can move forward without them.
The couple is now pushing for changes in hospital protocols to ensure no other family experiences what they did.
The Source: This story contains reporting from Fox 32's Tia Ewing.