Off-Duty Nurse Helped Mom-of-3 Give Birth in Hospital Parking Garage, as Kind Stranger Held Her Hand

“I thank my lucky stars that everything happened the way it did,” Madison Fritter says

Madison Fritter made it as far as the parking garage at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California, on St. Patrick’s Day 2021 when she realized her baby boy was “coming out.”

As her husband, Michael Fritter, 31, looked for help and sister Zoi Jones, 39, tended to Madison, “this man named Dave comes out of nowhere and grabs my hand and swoops me to the floor,” the 32-year-old stay-at-home mom recalls in this week’s issue of PEOPLE.

“I didn’t have the strength to get myself on the floor. He had these massive hands. I was so weak and he was so strong,” Madison says. “He was a godsend.”

Within minutes of resting on a pile of blankets on the garage floor, Madison gave birth to a healthy 8 lb., 2-oz healthy baby boy named Maverick.

Related: Mom Who Gave Birth in Seafood Restaurant Says Strangers Helped, ‘Everyone Cheered’ When Her Baby Arrived (Exclusive)

“The baby came out crying right away,” she says. “I didn’t even push.”

Dave, a hospital employee who never gave his full name, offered a sweater to wrap up the newborn.

At the same time, off-duty nurse Jenna Ricks, who had just been with her 2-week-old baby in the NICU, heard someone yell for a shoelace.

“There’s only one thing in the medical world that you need that for: to tie off an umbilical cord,” recalls Ricks, 29. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, someone is having a baby.’ ”

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As a nurse with years of experience delivering babies herself, Ricks provided much needed reassurance for the new mom. “She was like, ‘Don’t worry everyone. I am a labor and delivery nurse,’ ” Madison says.

“She made sure that I wasn’t bleeding out and that my placenta was in the right place,” Madison continues. “Jenna didn’t even work for that hospital. She was there for her son and was by me the whole time. She was like, ‘I’m going to make sure you’re fine when you get in and I’ll be with you.’ ”

After 15 minutes, paramedics arrived and helped Michael, a lawyer, cut the umbilical cord before Jenna accompanied Madison into the hospital.

“I told my husband, ‘Just stay with our son,’ and I went in and they delivered my placenta,” says Madison. “We were very fortunate, and I say all the time — I thank my lucky stars that everything happened the way it did and that my sister got to be there, too, and my mom still got to experience it all. It was such a crazy miracle.”

Related: Security Guard Recalls Stepping in to Deliver a Baby in an Elevator on Mother’s Day: ‘It Was Surreal’

Madison feels grateful for the help of strangers and hopes to one day meet the man named Dave who was such a tremendous help.

”I still would love to talk to him … and thank him,” she says.

Three years later, Madison remains in touch with Jenna, who reaches out every St. Patrick’s Day to wish Maverick a happy birthday. The toddler is thriving and relishing his role as a big brother to his 9-month-old sister, Millie, born last fall.

Madison is expecting her fourth baby in December and says of her son, “He fits his name so well.”

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