Students from Wake Tech spend one day a week riding with EMS crews and assisting with all kinds of medical emergencies. But not everyone gets to help deliver a baby. That honor went to first year EMS student Nathan McLamb.

"Well, since it was the first time I've ever actually seen it in real life, not just on a video, on a television screen," said McLamb. "It was very intense, exciting."

It was pretty exciting for Cowanda Rivers too. She called EMS from her North Raleigh apartment just after noon on June 10, but she didn't expect to have the baby before she even got out of the parking lot.

At just over eight pounds, little Joseph Kamel was healthy, but his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck.

"If they hadn't come when they came, I would have delivered at home," said Rivers. "And I still wouldn't have known what to do."

Wake Tech EMS instructor Tom Maynard says that kind of real-world experience can't be taught in the classroom.

"A big mechanism for learning in EMS is experiential, trying to let them practice scenarios, hands on," he said. "We've got some very expensive mannequins that we can hook up to computers to try to simulate patient conditions. But nothing can truly mimic real life out in the field."

Rivers says she remembers the paramedics introducing themselves, but didn't realize one was a student.

"If they would have told me then, then I would have been like, ‘oh, I hope they know what to do'," she said. "Now, it's like, well that was kind of good experience. I guess he knows what to do next time."

Nathan received a merit award for his part in the delivery. As for little Joseph Kamel, he's doing great. At just a month old, he's a big hit with his three big brothers too.