CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) -- It's a reunion months in the making.
A Charlotte mother got a chance to thank the first responders who helped deliver her child.
Charlotte firefighters respond to hundreds of calls every week, but it's not every day they get to reunite with the people they've helped. One of the crews at Firehouse 21 was able to meet the baby, whose life they helped save nearly six months ago.
Looking at baby Leilani, you wouldn't know the now-11-pound infant came into this world much, much smaller and in a way those close to her will always remember.
"This was a very, maybe a once-in-a-career kind of call, especially with the outcome that it had," said Firefighter Grant White.
White was one of several Charlotte Firehouse 21 firefighters dispatched to Halena Khen's home in January.
"My stomach is hurting really bad and I'm like this isn't normal," said Halena.
It turns out she was pregnant, didn't know it, and was having her baby months prematurely.
"We had thought that it was stillborn," said Firefighter Stephen Taylor. "We thought that she had miscarried. So I began cleaning the baby up, wrapping it up to hand back to mom and that's when the baby let out a cry."
The first responders got to work to save the tiny girl, weighing fewer than 2 pounds.
Pictured: Halena Khen with baby Leilani"Out of all of our training and stuff that we do, you don't ever learn to deal with a preemie quite that small," said Captain Shane Fields.
After getting Mom and Leilani to the hospital, Fields knew he wasn't done with this story.
"I asked her to please keep in touch, so I got a picture about once a week," he said. "We were just tickled to death to see this baby and it kept progressing and progressing."
Almost half a year after saving her life, Fields and his firefighters got to hold baby Leilani again.
"It's very special and I'll probably cherish that moment for the rest of my life," said White. "Always remember that."
The reunion was just as meaningful for Mom.
"A lot of people do their jobs but don't really connect with people they're doing it for," said Khen. "I think it was special, not even just for them, but for me also because it's like, this doesn't happen every day."
Leilani is making strides every day and the lucky little girl has three firefighters who won't soon forget the impact she's had on them.
"Nobody ever gets to hear the good side of our job," said Fields. "You always hear of the tragedy and the loss, which that comes with the territory, but nobody ever gets to hear the happy endings. We were excited that we had and had been a part of something that was that happy."
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