He’s probably the most Massachusetts dad ever.
A Cape Cod couple was driving to the hospital to deliver their daughter when she arrived prematurely and spectacularly, prompting the resourceful dad to give birth on the side of the highway, but in the process lost his wedding ring and went on an unplanned shopping trip to Dunkin’ Donuts.
Rebecca and Danya Mahotta were on their way to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Plymouth, an hour away from their Brewster home, on August 8 when Rebecca’s water broke about 26 minutes into the trip.
“After one contraction, he pulled over to the side of the road and I was already holding her head,” Rebecca Mahotta said. He told WCVB.
“(Rebecca) started screaming and said, ‘She’s coming,'” Danya Mahhota said. According to the Cape Cod Times.
“Of course, I was driving and I reached between my wife’s legs and sure enough, I touched the top of our daughter’s head.”
Worried, the husband quickly parked the car behind some bushes on the side of National Highway 6.
“‘We need to do this here,'” Danya, who has no medical training, recalled Rebecca saying.
“I said, ‘OK, baby, take it slow and let’s think about it,'” he told the media outlet, and before he knew it, little Summer had sauntered into the passenger seat of the couple’s Land Rover.
“She started crying and everything was fine,” the proud father told the Cape Cod Times.
Realizing they couldn’t wait for an ambulance on the side of the highway, the Mahotas did the best they could in Massachusetts: They headed to a Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot and waited for paramedics.
“They handed me a sterile Exacto knife and I cut my baby’s umbilical cord in a Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot, just like every other Massachusetts dad,” Danya joked to the outlet.
The mother and baby were taken to hospital and monitored for a few days before being released home.
However, when they arrive at the facility, they discover that Rebecca’s cell phone is missing, as is Danya’s wedding ring, which apparently fell off when she gave birth to Summer.
The phone was easily found thanks to its GPS tracking, but it took several days, some friends and a metal detector to find Daniyah’s ring, according to the Cape Cod Times.
“I found my phone about eight feet away from where it had been,” he said. “My hands were obviously messed up, so the phone had slipped out of my fingers.”
Rebecca praised her husband as “amazing” for keeping her and Summer safe during the unexpected birth.
“She had a different plan coming into this world. I keep calling her a showstopper,” she told the outlet.
