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Special Delivery: Baby Girl Born On Sled Following Snowstorm

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Like something out of a movie: that is how one neighbor describes the moments as baby girl Bella was born -- on a sled!

It happened around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday morning on Cinnamon Drive in Philadelphia's Roxborough neighborhood.

The biggest winter storm since 2010 has just blanketed the region with upwards of a foot of snow (See Related Story).

Neighbor George Leader slept as the snow tapered off.  He says massive screams coming from the street woke him up.

"I came running out because I thought she (the mother) had fallen on the ice going to work. And by the time I got out there I realized what was going on," says Leader.  "The father was there and this was coming, this was happening now, we weren't going to have time to get her anywhere."

Leader says the family was having trouble getting the car down the street due to the snow.

"So they struggled to get her to the car, decided to bring her down the hill on a sled. Unfortunately it was too late, this baby was coming, little Bella wasn't waiting," Leader said.

"So on the side of the street, sure enough on the sled, we delivered the baby. The father right there, I was on the phone with 911 talking them through it, the in-laws were right there at the mother's head helping her out and we all kind of kicked into action and little Bella came out happy and healthy," he said.

What was going through his mind?

"I couldn't believe this was happening, I thought it was something out of a movie. This just doesn't happen to us here in Roxborough," he said.

Leader says the father ran the baby straight up the street to the family's home.

Leader and his roommates carried the mother, still on the sled, into their house to keep warm until paramedics arrived.

Baby Bella and her mother were reunited in the ambulance shortly thereafter.

They were taken to the hospital and are doing fine.

"Everyone kicks in around here, it's Philly you know," Leader said.

He says the family had just bought the sled the day before for their other child and it was still in the car.

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