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A homeless man hitchhiking at a truck stop near Oklahoma City turned out to be an angel for a young pregnant woman.
Keaton Mason and her fiance were heading to a hospital because Mason was labor. They didn't make it, and Mason ended up giving birth in their white Honda at a truck stop along Interstate 40, News9.com reports.
Mason's baby girl was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck.
"The lady was screaming, 'My baby, my baby's blue. … She's not breathing,'" said Jennifer Morris who was at the truck stop and called 911.
Then Gary Wilson appeared.
"Her angel was there," paramedic Sandra Lesperance later said. Wilson was hitching a ride to Memphis but stopped to assist the panicking couple.
Wilson kept Mason calm and removed the cord from the newborn's neck, News9.com reports.
"He did everything perfectly right," Lesperance said. On the 911 tape you can hear a polite Wilson following directions from the operator.
Mason said, "He kept me pretty calm. ... He said, 'Everything's OK. She's OK, she's breathing.'"
Truck stop employee Waneva Morris told News9.com that Wilson sort of looked like Jesus. "He had the long hair, the long beard. A very nice gentleman," Morris said.
Mason agreed, saying, "He was our angel that night. That's for sure."
Tatum Brown was born four weeks early, weighing 4 pounds, 11 ounces, and doctors say she is doing fine.
For his heroism, Wilson—who told folks at the truck stop he was from Montana and en route to his final destination of Jacksonville, Fla.—got a free meal at the truck stop and was offered a place to stay.
By the next morning, Wilson was already gone. But he will be forever in the graces of Mason and little Tatum for his help along the way.
