Woman forced to give birth in car after hospital says ‘get out’

A story out of northwest Indiana has stunned people across the country.

CBS Chicago reporter Asal Rezaei spoke with a family who says a hospital sent a pregnant woman home while she was in obvious pain. Minutes later, she delivered her baby in the family car.

The mother, Mercedes Wells, had gone to Franciscan Health Crown Point expecting help and monitoring.

Instead, her family says she was discharged, wheeled out in a chair, and told to come back later. The videos they posted online show her clearly struggling as staff push her down a hallway and out the door.

Rezaei reports that those clips have quickly gone viral, in part because you can see what words can’t fully describe – a woman on the edge of delivery being rolled away from care.

Sent Home While In Active Labor

According to Asal Rezaei’s reporting, Mercedes and her family were visiting Indiana and the baby was not due for another couple of weeks.

Her family says Mercedes was in active labor when they arrived at Franciscan Health Crown Point. She was checked and told she was three centimeters dilated.

Rezaei reports that hospital staff told Mercedes that because she was “only” at three centimeters, she would have to come back later.

Her sister-in-law, Cherice Joy Thompson, told CBS Chicago she believes her family’s rights were violated. She said they trusted the hospital to help, and instead watched Mercedes get sent out while she was still in intense pain.

Thompson described it in simple but sharp terms: they felt dismissed, unheard, and pushed aside when they most needed help.

Stories like this hit hard because so many people assume labor and delivery floors are safe zones – places where staff will err on the side of caution, not speed.

Eight Minutes To A Roadside Delivery

Rezaei reports that eight minutes after leaving Franciscan Health, the baby arrived.

Thompson says that as her brother drove, Mercedes suddenly shouted that she had to push. There was no time to get to another hospital. Her labor had moved from “come back later” to “baby is here” in a matter of minutes.

According to Thompson’s account in the CBS Chicago report, Mercedes’ husband was driving with one hand while trying to help deliver the baby with the other.

He ripped her pants away, looked down, and saw the baby’s head already crowning. Thompson says he grabbed a blanket, caught the baby, and placed the newborn on Mercedes’ chest – with the umbilical cord still attached – while they kept driving.

Rezaei notes that 911 dispatchers were on the phone the whole time, guiding the family and directing them to Community Hospital in Munster, about half an hour away.

It’s a chaotic picture: a terrified mother, a panicked father trying to do what trained medical staff usually do, and a newborn entering the world on the side of the road instead of in a delivery room.

A Warm Welcome At The Second Hospital

The tone of the story changes once the family reaches Community Hospital in Munster.

Rezaei reports that 911 had already alerted the hospital that a mother and newborn were on the way. Staff there prepared for an emergency arrival.

Thompson told CBS Chicago that about 15 doctors and nurses were waiting outside when the family pulled up. They rushed Mercedes and the baby inside, where both were finally stabilized and cared for.

She called the staff at Community Hospital “welcoming” and said the family was grateful for how they were treated once they got there.

Thompson also called her brother a hero for staying calm enough to deliver his own child in that kind of pressure.

Stories like this underline how big the gap can be between two medical facilities just a short drive apart – one sending a woman away, the other lining up a team at the door.

‘Violated, Unheard, Dismissed’

In Rezaei’s CBS Chicago report, Thompson describes visiting Mercedes later at Community Hospital.

She says that when she opened the door to her room, Mercedes saw her and immediately started crying. Those weren’t tears of joy about the baby. They were tears about how the day had gone.

According to Thompson, Mercedes feels violated, unheard, and dismissed. She had tried to tell staff that something was wrong. Her body told her the baby was coming soon. She believed she was in active labor, but her feelings were brushed aside.

The family now wants the hospital staff who turned Mercedes away to be held responsible.

Franciscan Health Crown Point, Rezaei reports, has opened an internal investigation into what happened that day. Hospital leadership knows the video and the public reaction are not going away.

It’s striking how often patients’ words show up in these stories: “I didn’t feel heard.” That theme comes up again in the second source, the CNN interview with Victor Blackwell.

Hospital President Admits Staff ‘Failed To Listen’

CNN anchor Victor Blackwell sat down with Mercedes, her husband Leon Wells, and their attorney Cannon Lambert to hear the story in their own words.

Blackwell explained that Franciscan Health Crown Point President and CEO Raymond Grady had released a new statement after the CBS story and online reaction.

According to Blackwell’s report, Grady called the videos “difficult to watch” and admitted that hospital staff “failed to listen” to Mercedes’ concerns. He also said that the doctor and nurse directly involved in her care no longer work there.

Grady promised changes, saying that from now on, all pregnant patients would be examined by a physician before they leave the hospital.

For Mercedes, the apology came late. She told Blackwell it took a while for the hospital even to respond to what happened to her. She also said something striking – that she never saw a doctor during her time at Franciscan Health.

She said no doctor came into her room and no doctor ever spoke to her. Yet the hospital president’s statement referred to a doctor involved in her care, someone she doesn’t even know.

Mercedes And Leon Describe A Terrifying Night

In the CNN interview, Mercedes walked Victor Blackwell through the timeline.

She said her contractions started around midnight. She even called the hospital ahead of time, about 20 minutes before arriving, to let them know she was coming.

When she got there, she still had to go through all the intake questions – who her doctor was, details about her pregnancy – even as her contractions were already about 15 minutes apart. She says she was in active labor from the start.

According to Mercedes, a nurse checked her and told her she was three centimeters dilated. As the hours passed, her contractions grew stronger and closer together. The nurse later said she could feel the baby’s head, but still insisted Mercedes was only three centimeters.

After about six hours of labor, Mercedes says the nurse told her she had to be discharged because she wasn’t far enough along.

Mercedes told Blackwell she knew that wasn’t right. She couldn’t even feel the nurse’s hand during the last exam, which made her think she had to be more dilated than the nurse claimed.

Leon explained his side of the story too. He said that when staff told them they had to leave, he knew they weren’t wanted there. He focused on his wife’s safety and their baby’s safety and decided to get her somewhere else as fast as he could.

He told Blackwell that he has no medical training and no experience delivering babies. Yet a few minutes later, he found himself doing exactly that in the truck, helping bring his daughter Alena into the world.

Calls For Accountability And Culture Change

Attorney Cannon Lambert used the CNN interview to talk about what happens next.

He told Victor Blackwell that it’s good the hospital says the doctor and nurse are gone, but he wants clarity on whether they were fired or simply resigned. To him, that difference matters.

Lambert also said the issue isn’t only about two people. He argued that Franciscan Health Crown Point has a culture problem – that others watched this happen and did nothing.

He said he and the family are planning to meet with hospital leadership and want to hear exactly how the hospital believes it failed. Lambert wants to compare that with what the family says went wrong and push for real policy changes so this doesn’t happen again.

When Blackwell asked if he expects a lawsuit, Lambert said the hospital has some control over that. If they “do what’s right,” he suggested, the family would be glad to see that. But he also made clear that Mercedes and Leon want to be a voice for other people, not just themselves.

A Wider Crisis For Black Mothers

Near the end of the CNN interview, Victor Blackwell zoomed out to the bigger picture.

He pointed out that Black women have the highest rate of maternal mortality in the United States. He cited recent numbers showing about 50 deaths per 100,000 live births nationally for Black mothers – several times the rate for white and Hispanic women.

He also said the problem is even worse in Indiana, where maternal mortality for Black women is around 156 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to state data he referenced.

Blackwell asked Mercedes how the hospital’s admitted failure fits into that wider crisis.

Mercedes said she wants this case to highlight the huge disparities in care and push patients to speak up. She hopes the impact is strong enough that the whole country sees a real change in how Black mothers are treated in hospitals.

Her message was simple: recognizing that there’s a problem is step one. The next step is action.

Why This Story Hits So Many Nerves

Taken together, the reporting from Asal Rezaei at CBS Chicago and the interview by Victor Blackwell at CNN tell more than just a wild birth story.

They describe a woman who did what she was supposed to do – called ahead, went to the hospital, explained her pain – and was still told to leave. They show a husband forced into the role of emergency doctor on the side of the road.

The details make this story hard to shake. A nurse feeling the baby’s head but saying “come back later.” A mother who never sees a doctor. A video of her being wheeled out while clearly in distress. A newborn delivered in a moving vehicle.

It’s also powerful to see how quickly systems can change once a story goes public. Only after the videos spread and reporters like Rezaei and Blackwell started asking questions did the hospital’s president acknowledge failure, remove staff, and promise new rules.

This case is fascinating and troubling because it sits right at the point where individual pain meets a larger national problem. It shows how one family’s nightmare can expose cracks in a whole system – especially for Black women giving birth in America.