A Northern California woman who opted to drive an unfamiliar path to her parents’ house while in labor found herself alone during childbirth and fighting off bees shortly after, KCRA.com reported.
Amber Pangborn, 35, told the news station that amidst a drive in Plumas County National Forest to her parents’ house on Thursday, she ended up giving birth alone to her daughter Marissa. Next, her cellphone died and her car ran out of gas.
"I was told about this back road and people had showed it to me a few times, but I had never driven it by myself," Pangborn, of Oroville, Calif., told an NBC affiliate in Oroville, according to KCRA.com.
For the next three days, Pangborn sat stranded in her car, subsisting only on a few apples and some water.
Mosquitoes and bugs descended on the mother and her newborn during that time, according to the news station. Pangborn got stung but protected her daughter from the insects, she said.
At the three-day mark, the new mom started a signal fire that erupted into a forest fire. Within hours, a U.S. Forest Service worker located the fire, and then Pangborn and her newborn.
“I was just crying, and I was just so happy," Pangborn said. "I thought we were going to die."
The two were initially admitted to Oroville Hospital, but baby Marissa was taken to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento for more evaluation.
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