Sacramento firefighters reunite with baby they saved after she was born on side of highway
SACRAMENTO – It was a surprise reunion for firefighters at Sacramento Station 6 who met the baby they helped save after her mother delivered her on the side of Highway 99 in June.
Jazmin Quijano was having labor pains and was driving to UC Davis Children's Hospital when she felt her body go into labor 22 weeks early. She told her partner to pull over and call 911.
Firefighter Eric Chin was part of the crew first on the scene that night when the call came in around 2 a.m.
"We're immediately going back to the basics of CPR because we don't get trained on premature babies that young," Chin said.
"We got the baby to the ambulance and unfortunately, she wasn't breathing and she didn't have a pulse," said Jeffery Switkowski with Fire Station 6. "So, we had to do CPR all the way to the hospital, we did everything that we could."
While the trip to UC Davis was only five minutes, every second counted. Daleyza was handed over to the NICU nurses at UC Davis Children's Hospital and rushed into treatment.
Daleyza's mother, Jazmin Quijano, never gave up hope her baby would make it.
"The doctor told me, 'If you believe in God, pray, pray for a miracle because we will do everything in our power, but it will also depend on God,'" Quijano said. "They told me she was a miracle because not a lot of babies can accomplish this."
Despite severe bleeding in her brain and other medical challenges, Daleyza has spent the last five months recovering in the hospital. She's grown strong enough to go home, just in time for Christmas and making a reunion with the firefighters who saved her, possible.
"This is a super special day for all of us. We had no idea that she was going to be here," Switkowski said. "It was so good to hold her and see that she's doing so well."
Doctors who cared for the baby credit the first responder's quick thinking and care for why she was able to survive such a traumatic event and beat the odds. They said what happens in the first few days of a baby's life who is born at just 22 weeks is critical and called Daleyza a miracle baby.