Sarabjit Kaur Marwaha didn’t know when she went to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Tipton for her 36-week prenatal appointment on the morning of Friday, March 31, that her baby would be born that night, or that a powerful tornado was about to hit. Sarabjit credits the staff at Baptist Tipton for safely bringing baby girl Cynthia into the world under very difficult circumstances.
When Sarabjit arrived at her appointment, Dr. Lusia Filetti began 30-min monitoring of Cynthia’s heart rate, discovering that it was getting elevated too often. That’s when Dr. Filetti informed Sarabjit that they would need to induce labor. Cynthia had other plans.
“We started inducing, but I wasn’t progressing. Cynthia was in distress. They had to give fluid to her in the womb,” said Sarabjit.
Sarabjit had never had a C-section before, and it wasn’t something she wanted to do. At this point, the weather was getting much worse, and Sarabjit, whose family couldn’t be there with her, relied on the staff to get her through a challenging time.
“Dr. Filetti told me it was going to be a C-section and I said, ‘OK, we’ll do what we have to do.’ I told her I trust her. The staff made sure they got me downstairs to the operating room before the power went out,” said Sarabjit. “My nurse anesthetist kept me comfortable, and the whole staff was really great. Everyone was praying for us.”
Sarabjit is especially appreciative of the attention she received from the staff during such a violent storm.
“I want to thank all of the staff that helped me. They had to put their own families aside and think about me and Cynthia. I’m very grateful for how professional they are and for taking care of me and my daughter in the storm when they had to not think about their families. That’s hard to do,” said Sarabjit.
Cynthia, who was due on April 28, was born four weeks early at 6:48 p.m. via an emergency C-section completed with emergency generator power shortly after the EF3 tornado struck Tipton County, damaging the hospital’s roof, windows and air conditioning.
Now almost four months old, Cynthia weighs 10 pounds and is keeping her big brother and sister company at home. And she’s not the only one in the family born during extreme weather. Her brother was born during a snowstorm in Covington in January 2022.
Health care providers who assisted with Cynthia’s birth along with Dr. Filetti include Dr. Oluwatosin Bewaji; Andi Anderson, CRNA; Angela Aswell, RN; Tasha Ballard, RN; Stephen Goode, RN; Ashley McGrath, RN; Josh Strickland, RN; and Stephanie White, RN.
“Everyone who was involved was wonderful,” said Sarabjit, who noted that some of her health care providers had to drive through the storm to be there for her.
