Hannah MackayThe Detroit News
Royal Oak — It was an unforgettable meal.
When Patricia Worton and Kim Boustany decided to go out to dinner Saturday night, they had no idea they'd soon deliver a baby on the patio of Lily’s Seafood Grill and Brewery in downtown Royal Oak.
Alyse Sparkman of Northville went into labor at the table next to them, so Worton and Boustany, both former nurses at Detroit Receiving Hospital who now do home care, took action. It was a good thing they did because, within minutes, the child was born but needed to be untangled from the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck.
"Everything I've ever seen, I know for sure in 25 years, that baby terrified me worse than anything I've ever seen," Worton said. It really didn't sink in to us what a miracle it was until way after the fact."
With the help of Worton and Boustany, Penelope Lily Sparkman was born weighing 4 pounds, 8 ounces around 8 p.m. Saturday to the cheers of passing onlookers in downtown Royal Oak; both she and her mother are healthy and home as of Tuesday. Penelope's middle name was supposed to be Danielle, but her parents felt Lily was more fitting given where she was born.
"We were going to go to Condado Taco," said Sean Sparkman, Alyse's husband and Penelope's dad. "We decided not to at the last minute, and we decided to go to Lily's, which is probably good because I don't know if Condado Taco would make a good middle name."
Worton and Boustany don't know whether fate, divine intervention or serendipity placed them at the table next to the Sparkmans.
The friends and coworkers were out to dinner to celebrate Worton's 50th birthday after their plans for earlier in the day had been delayed. Worton lives in Royal Oak, and they picked Lily's for the patio and people-watching on Washington Avenue. Downtown was bustling given that it was one of the first warm Saturdays this spring.
A nurse's instincts
Worton said she first noticed that Alyse was pregnant when she returned to her table from the restroom.
"I'm one of those nurses that gets a bad feeling before things happen," Worton said. "In a lot of years, I learned to listen to my instincts. ... I felt like something was seriously up and so I kept watching her."
All of a sudden, Worton saw Alyse say her water had broken and the two heard her scream.
"Luckily, she was only two feet away; we were at her lap in seconds," Worton said. "There were all these people around us, but it felt like we were the only people there."
Worton went to Alyse's feet while Boustany went to her side, the two thinking they'd help her through some contractions until an ambulance arrived.
"She goes, 'The baby's coming,' but the look in her face looked like she knew what she was talking about," Worton said. "As she was saying it was coming, I don't know something made me put my hand down, and there was a baby's head against it."
The next thing she knew Worton was holding a baby. The first thing she noticed was that the baby was purple and blue and tangled in the umbilical cord. Boustany was able to remove the cord from around the baby's neck, and Penelope immediately took a breath and cried, beginning to turn pink.
"By some miracle, Kim gets the cord off, and I pushed the baby against the mom's chest," Worton said. "We don't know a lot about maternity, but what we do know is that that cord had to come or that baby might not breathe."
Boustany, who lives in Hamtramck, said the two went into "work mode," operating as a team.
"You go into lockdown mode in your head so that you're not really feeling anything," said Boustany, 48. "We weren't talking. ... With ICU nurses, that's what you do and you're trained to work in a team."
A rush to get car
Alyse Sparkman, who was 37 weeks pregnant, had been having intermittent contractions all week, her husband told The Detroit News on Tuesday.
Her due date was May 15, but they went to the hospital on Saturday after the contractions had intensified, he said. The couple, who have two other children, was told that labor might still take 24 hours or more and were encouraged to walk around to help the process along.
They decided to get a bite to eat in downtown Royal Oak and park in the parking structure a few blocks away to get more steps in, Sean said, admitting it wasn't the best idea in hindsight.
By the time their meal was served, Sean said his wife took one bite of her trout Caesar salad and told him to get the car.
"My water's breaking," she told him.
Sean rushed to go get the car. Despite sprinting to the garage and up three flights of stairs, Alyse had already given birth by the time he returned to their table.
Crowd cheers
Once Penelope had been delivered, a small crowd gathered and cheered. Worton and Boustany were shocked by the public's empathy and compassion.
"For some reason at this very moment we were surrounded by all amazing people," Worton said. "I mean the staff, the manager, the mayor, the people, the customers were unbelievable."
Jennie Koczynski, the Sparkmans' server at Lily's, said she started bawling immediately after the birth. No one who was there Saturday will ever forget the experience, she said, and Koczynski couldn't stop smiling for the rest of the night.
"We all share that crazy experience," Koczynski said. "It's so beautiful and a miracle and it was just so unbelievable."
Royal Oak's Mayor Mike Fournier and Oakland County Board of Commissioners Chairman Dave Woodward happened to be walking by Lily's at the time of Penelope's birth and bought the nurses dinner. Fournier gave both Worton and Boustany a shoutout as heroes on his Facebook page.
EMS eventually arrived to take Penelope, Alyse and Sean to the hospital. After the fact, Worton and Boustany said people just kept coming up to them to shake hands, before they'd even had a chance to wash the afterbirth off themselves. They got a little bit overwhelmed by the attention, Worton said.
"We didn't even feel like we did a lot," Worton said. "We did not have to help her through the birth, we did not have to give her CPR, we weren't coaching her for an hour. ... So many things could have happened that we didn't have to do."
Still, between adrenaline and shock, neither Worton nor Boustany got much sleep Saturday night. They've since seen an outpouring of appreciation.
"Anytime I get a message regarding the baby or like from the mom or if I look at a picture of Penelope, I'm just so unbelievably grateful and happy," Boustany said. "It's Penelope and her mom's story. We're just players."
At a time when so many nurses are plagued by burnout amid a nationwide shortage since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the two friends said their experience highlights the great things nurses can do. It comes just in time for National Nurses Week, which starts Monday.
"At least nurses get to see a good story about great things that nurses do," Worton said.
Plans for a reunion
Now, the pair plans to make dinner at Lily's a monthly routine. They both used to work at Detroit Receiving Hospital but have since transitioned to at-home care for Home Care Experts, and neither has much experience in obstetrics.
"Give me a gunshot, give me a stabbing, but babies are a whole other —they're scarier than anything else," Boustany said.
The Sparkmans returned home to Northville from the hospital on Monday. Sean said he and his wife are both grateful Worton and Boustany helped and are looking forward to meeting them again soon.
"(We're) just feeling grateful," Sean said. "Eventually we're going to get together once we're all settled in and everything. We'll get together with them (the nurses) and say thank you in person."
Worton and Boustany, meanwhile, are still glowing from the miracle of which they were a part.
"I’m so amazed,” Worton said, “and I feel so good inside that a miracle happened.”
hmackay@detroitnews.com
