A restaurant bathroom is not the ideal place to deliver a high-risk pregnancy, but Gracelyn Mae wasn’t going to wait.
Her parents, Falon and Robert Griffin, were heading to University Hospital so their baby could be delivered by Dr. Patrick Ramsey, an obstetrician and maternal-fetal medicine specialist. They stopped at the Chick-Fil-A at U.S. 281 and Evens Road — after closing time — to meet friends who would pick up their two older children, but Falon urgently needed to use the restroom. Employees opened the door and let them in.
Then she started to give birth.
“At that moment I realized, ‘Oh my gosh, this is happening!’” Falon Griffin said.
Robert Griffin saw what was happening and said, “Honey, we’re going to do something great, but we’re going to do it right here and we’re going to do it right now.”
After he helped deliver his daughter (he is named the attending physician on the birth certificate), Robert also unwrapped the umbilical cord from her neck, and when EMS arrived a few minutes later, they handed him the tools to cut the cord.
It was a high-risk delivery of a high-risk baby that ended up working out well, Dr. Ramsey said. “A lot of things could have gone wrong,” but Gracelyn is healthy and doing well."
Dr. Ramsey cared for Falon, who has epilepsy, after her obstetrician determined that the baby also was high-risk. His team steps in at whatever level the patient wants, he said. The team can also co-manage the pregnancy with the primary doctor or see the patient one time and make an assessment and recommendations for her and her physician.
“She wanted one person to see her, and she had a lot going on,” he said.
See media coverage about the special delivery on KENS 5 and KSAT.
