Mom reunites with Aubrey firefighters who helped deliver her premature baby

AUBREY, Texas - A North Texas woman is grateful that first responders in Denton County were able to jump into action when she was not able to get to the hospital for the birth of her baby.

Firefighters in the Denton County town of Aubrey are recalling the day when their training and adrenaline met with a mom-to-be in premature labor.

"They called us from the car because they had to stop and couldn’t continue any further," recalled Aubrey Fire Engineer Kyle Covington.

The call was on February 11. Mary Popoola was 23 weeks pregnant. She was in a vehicle, pulled over at an Aubrey police substation. 

"She was very emotional. It was a stressful situation," Covington recalled. "She knew it wasn’t a good ordeal because she was way too early for that baby to be coming."

While transferring Popoola from her vehicle to an ambulance, baby Enoch was born. 

The reunion between the firefighters and the mom came six months later after Enoch was hospitalized for more than 100 days in a neonatal unit. 

Aubrey Fire Paramedic Preston Brooks had just become a new father himself several weeks before the call. 

"It was my first shift acting as a paramedic for this department. I was a newly certified paramedic in the state of Texas," he said. "It was a lot of slow down, catch my thoughts. We’re so used to the job. We know what to do, and we train every day for these types of situations. Not this one in particular, but this is one where you kind of have to go to the back of the brain."

Popoola was not available for an interview, but she told FOX4 that baby Enoch is thriving and doing well.  She’s also forever grateful to the firefighters who showed up that day to help her baby boy.

"I was very nerve-racking," Brooks admitted. "You can’t show it, but you have to buckle down and put your game face on. But, absolutely, it was nerve-racking."

"You don’t usually get to see a lot of results from the job," Covington said. "You may take someone to the hospital. I may never see them ever again. But to be involved with something like that, you get to see your healthy child and be healthy and happy is really a neat experience."