Woman in labor doesn't make it past security; Tampa hospital guard delivers baby

TAMPA, Fla. - To security guard Philip Kalil, there was something different about the way Andre Garnett drove up to the main entrance at Tampa General Hospital, parked, and got out.

"He said, 'Hey, help my wife, she's having a baby!'" Kalil recalled. "I said, 'OK. Let me get you a wheelchair.' He said, 'No, she's having the baby now.'"

On Saturday, April 25, Kalil went from screening guests for signs of COVID-19 to making a different kind of introduction.

"I said [to her] 'Look, it's you and me.'"

He radioed for help as Andre's wife, Vienna, put her trust in Phil to catch.

"I already had her head in my hands," Vienna said.

As nurses swarmed with towels, Phil went a bit beyond at first-aid training he got at a police department years ago.

"I said 'push,'" he said. "She pushed and the baby came out."

His time substituting for a doctor wasn't quite over when he realized the baby wasn't crying.

"I was like, 'Well that's not right,'" he said.  "Mom said the cord was around her neck. I was like, 'Yup... I got it. Don't worry about it!'"

It only took a moment for the little one to release a full-throated cry. At 21 inches long, 8 pounds and 8 ounces -- Zariah Garnett was here.

"We put her on my chest," said Vienna.

She was born a single day before her mom was to be induced.

"She is amazing," said Vienna. "She is such a good baby, she sleeps through everything."