Chicago, August 10 — Scott Casty of Chicago, Illinois, was thrilled to learn the ambulance he sponsored for Magen David Adom, Israel’s paramedic and Red Cross service, was instrumental in bringing a new life into the world when it was used to rush medics to the scene of an unexpected home birth in northern Israel.
But when Scott learned the baby had been born on his own birthday, he thought it was bashert (fate), and decided to buy a stroller for the baby. Last week, that stroller was presented to the baby’s parents on Scott’s behalf by the paramedic and senior EMTs who delivered the baby six months ago.
“It was amazing to see the baby, Mia, looking so healthy, vibrant, and cute, after what was apparently a harrowing home delivery,” Casty said, after watching the presentation of the stroller live via a Zoom video conference.
“Mia and I not only share a birthday, February 18th, but we share an enduring connection that I hope she’ll learn about when she’s old enough to understand it. This donation of an ambulance was, in a sense, an investment in Israel’s future, and seeing Mia looking so healthy, makes it feel as if that investment paid precious dividends.”
Mia’s parents, Olga and Stas Parunov, had planned on a hospital delivery. But Mia arrived on her own terms — and quickly. Magen David Adom paramedic Hodaya Roza and senior EMTs Avi Abadi and Nehoray Biner arrived in minutes, but Mia had already begun her journey to meet her folks and check out her new home.
“Home births are always tense, especially for the mothers,” Roza said. “But our job, in part, is to ensure them that everything will be O.K. By the time we whisked Olga and Mia into the ambulance to be taken to Carmel Medical Center, it was clear her color was good and that we had a healthy baby on our hands.
“It was great to see her again today, all these months later, developing further and looking so incredibly content,” she added.
“It’s amazing to think Mia’s birth was facilitated by a donation [of an ambulance] made more than 6,000 miles away,” the baby’s mother, Olga, said. “We now have this bond with Scott, who until today, was a stranger. And Mia will now be riding around in another set of wheels he provided for her.”