Trooper helps deliver baby boy on shoulder of Tennessee highway

DICKSON, Tenn. — A Tennessee state trooper delivered a baby on the shoulder of a Nashville-area interstate earlier this week.

Trooper Aaron Ranker of the Tennessee Highway Patrol was responding to a crash on Interstate 40 in Nashville on Tuesday evening when he got a second call for help.

When he arrived at the scene, he saw that Sharie Madrid was in labor.

"With my medical experience I did realize, it was imminent, and there was no waiting for the ambulance, and was able to walk her through the birth, and was able to birth a beautiful baby boy," Ranker said.

Before he was a trooper, Ranker was an EMT. It was the third baby he'd delivered during his career.

He said he was lucky to be nearby when the call came.

"I usually work midnights, 8 p.m. to 7 a.m," Ranker said. "But for the fact that I happened to be two miles away, experienced, and even on shift at that time, is just, the factors are unbelievable."

The mother and her baby are both healthy. Madrid said the trooper saved the day.

"It happened so fast," Madrid said. "Couldn't have asked for a better trooper to come be there for me. I would have not been able to do it without him."

It was cold, but fortunately, Ranker had blankets in his car.

"We have some parts of our job that are, you know, kind of tough sometimes. But to do something like that just means everything in the world," Ranker said.

Madrid is currently staying at a hospital in Dickson. They'll soon make their way back to their home in Mississippi.

"It was wild, that's for sure. Didn't really have a lot of time to process," Madrid said.

Madrid's husband, James, said the couple hasn't decided on a name yet because the baby came three weeks early.

"Very excited, very happy," James Madrid said.

The baby boy is the couple's second child together.

This story was originally published by Alexandra Koehn on Scripps station WTVF in Nashville.