MARSHALL COUNTY, Iowa — The unimaginable became reality for one family after an expectant mother went into labor in the middle of last week's blizzard in Iowa.
While a couple was snowed into their home, first responders found a way to get ambulances and help to the house in order to deliver the baby.
The call came in around 11:20 p.m. and Sgt. Joseph McMillen at the Marshall County Sheriff's Office knew he was going to make it there some way.
Despite snow-covered roads and 20-feet snow drifts, McMillen got in his car and drove straight there.
"The gravel started out, it was, immediately I could tell that this was going to be interesting," McMillen said. "My vehicle started to act up, slowing me down, the transmission message came up and service transmission and I just kept going. Eventually I got stuck in a drift."
After getting stuck, McMillen got out of the vehicle and, without hesitation, walked nearly half a mile through the blizzard.
While McMillen made his way to the house, dispatchers stayed on the phone the entire time.
Once McMillem arrived, he immediately helped in any way he knew to support.
"I said, 'No one else is coming, I know an ambulance is on the way, but as far as I know it is just me and you,'" McMillen told Local 5.
While McMillen supported the couple throughout, it was an all-hands-on-deck effort across the county.
City of Clemons Fire Chief Jason Smith heard the page come through and immediately got in his tractor.
"I knew they were going to have trouble getting there, so I set out with the tractor and made my way up there," Smith said.
Smith plowed the road so the ambulance could get through, then got one ambulance un-stuck and finally got McMillen's car un-stuck.
Ten minutes after the ambulances got there, the baby was born.
"I was proud of that moment when I heard that little baby cry, it was such a relief," McMillen said. "You know a lot of emotions at that moment and just pure happiness is how I can describe that."
This night and moment is something each first responder credits to everyone involved.
"I played such a small role in it, and it was awesome to see the wonderful first responders of Marshall County come out sacrificing their time, their efforts to get to somebody that truly needed help," McMillen said.
The family says that they feel like the emergency crews are the superheroes in this situation.