INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) - 40 years ago Thursday, the Blizzard of 1978 was dumping almost two feet of snow on Indianapolis. 50 mile an hour winds created drifts more than ten feet high.
And in the middle of the mayhem, Eyewitness News came across a mom stranded and struggling to bring a little girl into the world.
We found that baby and told her a birthday story she had never heard before.
She is now a 40-year-old mom.
Jessi Cain survived the Blizzard of 1978 but doesn't remember a single thing about it. Her birth certificate explains why.
She's bonafide blizzard baby, born January 27, 1978.
“My mom didn't really say much about it at all,” Jessi told us.
Eyewitness News was there.
We showed Jessi her incredible birthday story, playing back video from a story we did 40 years ago.
“Oh my gosh…,” she said.
“Tammy was about to have a baby,” said the reporter in the story.
Jessi's 19-year-old mom was in labor in the nurses' office at Decatur Junior High School. Her dad, Don Burba, was pacing and peeking in, trying to stay cool after the blizzard had interrupted their ambulance ride to the hospital
“They decided it would be better to bring her over here and let the baby be born here rather than be halfway and have it there,” said Burba.
Meanwhile, in the closed and crowded Indianapolis airport…
“Somebody came up to me and said 'we have a woman labor,'” Dr. Charles Maloney recalled.
“Ok,” said Dr. Maloney.
Maloney remembers jumping into a stranger's 4-wheel drive jeep. They got behind a giant airport plow which cleared their way to a young mom in labor.
For 11 hours, a doctor with no medicine or medical instruments reassured Tammy that everything would be fine.
By the way: Maloney is a plastic surgeon.
We asked Dr. Maloney if he was sure everything was really going to be fine.
“No,” he said, laughing. “No, of course not.”
The doctor and everyone was relieved when another ambulance finally arrived to rush mom to the hospital
“I have delivered babies outside the hospital before but never in quite this situation," Maloney said in the story. Asked if he wanted to do it again, he paused. “Well, not exactly.”
Baby Jessi Burba arrived just 15 minutes after mom and dad arrived at the hospital.
“I'm just glad it is over with and it is all right,” mom said after the delivery. “It was scary there for the last couple of hours.”
Dr. Maloney’s face lit up, seeing for the first time the baby girl he nearly delivered.
“Great, great, the baby looked great, mom was doing great so good ending,” he said.
Actually, a good beginning for Jessie
“There I am,” said Cain, viewing file video.
A reporter asked the new mother what she would someday tell her daughter about the delivery ordeal.
“She probably won't believe me,” mom said, laughing.
After all, this 40-year-old birthday story is totally new to Jessi.
“She had to be scared to death,” Jessi said. “She had to be scared out of her mind and probably worried about her unborn baby, I'm sure.”
Both of Jessie's parents have since passed away.
“They really looked like they really loved each other,” Jessi said.
That love and the kindness of strangers made for a birthday story that lives today in the faces of Jessi, her husband Daniel and their four children.