Living up to a new name
Nurse from Tampa delivers co-worker’s baby on I-70
Staff writer
Aminda Brunner has another accomplishment to add to her resume as an emergency room nurse at Hays Medical Center.
Aminda, daughter of Jesse and Rita Brunner of Tampa, delivered a baby in her truck on I-70 between Ellis and Hays.
The mother, Michelle Drexler, was Aminda’s friend and a co-worker in the emergency department.
The baby was due Monday, but Michelle began having contractions Dec. 4. She had had a long labor with her first child, Charlie, so she figured she had plenty of time to get to the doctor.
At 7 p.m. that evening, Aminda went to her friend’s house in Ellis to pick up a stuffed animal for Charlie, who she was taking care of for the night.
In the 20 minutes it took Aminda to make it to Ellis from Hays, Michelle’s contractions became so strong she could barely walk.
Aminda hurried her to her truck and headed for a hospital.
Michelle suddenly announced that her water had broken.
“You need to pull over the car now. We’re having a baby,” she said.
Aminda pulled over and called 911 at 8:08 p.m. A minute later, she exclaimed, “Oh, s–––! I caught him! I caught him!”
As a nurse, Aminda had trained in birth and delivery and had observed several births but never had delivered a baby herself.
Aminda said it happened so fast that she didn’t have time to panic. The women wrapped little Miles Drexler in Aminda’s favorite hoodie.
An ambulance arrived a couple minutes later. Michelle’s sister-in-law, a labor and delivery nurse, then arrived with Michelle’s husband and helped deliver the placenta. Everything was fine.
Aminda, whose brother Nathan is an advanced emergency medical technician for Marion County, has been a registered nurse at Hays Medical Center for 18 years and has been in the emergency department for 14. In January 2020, she received the Daisy Award for her extraordinary compassionate care.
She lived up to that this month by aiding her friend in safely delivering her baby.
“It was just my friend, me, and God, and Miles,” Aminda said.