[Whitfield:] Monday was a disastrous day for Moore, Oklahoma, but it was also the birthday of Shayla Taylor's son. She was in labor while the tornado was ripping down the hospital's walls, but she got through the frightening ordeal with the help of four heroic nurses. The women had an emotional reunion. Taylor's newborn baby was there as well and so was our Brian Todd.
[Unidentified Female:] How are you? My God, look at how handsome your boy is.
[Brian Todd, Cnn Correspondent:] A reunion that came seconds and inches away from never happening. Four nurses from Moore Medical Center congratulate Shayla Taylor on her newborn son, Braden, six people with a bond that will last for the rest of their lives. As the tornado approached town, Shayla Taylor was in labor on the second floor of the medical center. She was dilated, going through contractions and
[Alyson Heeke, Nurse Supervisor:] She couldn't move. She had epidural anesthesia, which meant it numbed her enough that she couldn't walk.
[Todd:] As the tornado bore down, the staff moved her to the hallway then to the more solid windowless operating room. The power was knocked out. It was too dangerous to move her anywhere else.
[Cindy Popejoy, Charge Nurse:] Her baby was not doing the best. So I really needed a way to monitor her baby to see how the baby was tolerating the labor process especially since she was so far dilated. So the only place to do that would be the
[Or. Todd:] But within minutes, the hospital was hit with massive force. [on camera]: Now what do you think?
[Shayla Taylor, Rode Out Storm In Damaged Hospital:] Once I felt the floor start shaking, it felt like an earthquake. I knew we were getting hit directly.
[Todd:] Did you think at that moment that you and Braden could survive this?
[Shayla Taylor:] I didn't know if we would. I was just praying that we would.
[Todd:] The walls were ripped off the operating room. Shayla's husband and the nurses shared these pictures from where they were hunkered down a gaping hole to the outside, the tornado still raging.
[Shayla Taylor:] I opened my eyes, I could see I-35 and I could see the movie theatre.
[Todd:] With Shayla still in labor, nurses, Cindy Popejoy, Barbara Brand, Bonnie Stevens and Alyson Heeke, draped blankets and their bodies over her and hung on.
[Heeke:] We actually were on the floor. Bonnie the scrub tech was leaning over her. We had blankets and pillows all around her and we were holding on to each other in the bed.
[Todd:] It worked, the tornado passed without any of them being hurt. But Shayla's husband, Jerome, who'd taken cover with their 4- year-old son, Shaden, on a lower floor hadn't been allowed to go to his wife and says he didn't know how to get to her.
[Jerome Taylor, Shayla's Husband:] And they were like, no, you have to get out of the building. I was like, no, my wife is upstairs.
[Todd:] And there was still danger. Even though the tornado had passed, floors and ceilings were unstable and there were gas leaks. But Jerome Taylor and the nurses were able to get Shayla on to a flat board and down a stairwell and out. Shayla was taken to a hospital in Norman. Within hours, Bradon Emmanuel Taylor was born at a healthy 8 pounds, 3 ounces. [on camera]: What do you think of the nurses and what they did?
[Shayla Taylor:] Those nurses are amazing. You know, they they're definitely doing the job that they were called to do. You know, to put my life before theirs. I know that's what you're supposed to do, you know, as a nurse. I went to nursing school. I know that's what you're supposed to do, but to actually see them do it and to be more concerned about me than them, I know that's they're definitely doing the job that they are called to do.
[Todd:] As for this tiny trouble maker.
[Shayla Taylor:] He'll probably sleep through anything now.
[Todd:] One final piece of symmetry here, Shayla Taylor just finished nursing school. She says she always wanted to be a labor and delivery nurse and this experience only reinforces that. Brian Todd, CNN, Moore, Oklahoma.
[Whitfield:] That's so heart warming. Congratulations to all of them and all the best. All right, the head of an IRS division at the heart of the tax targeting scandal stirs up a little bit controversy. Lois Lerner takes the Fifth, but has a whole lot to say before she invokes that right. Our legal guys will look at that controversy, next.