Police Officer, Paramedics Help Save Baby Born In Gas Station Parking Lot On Mother's Day
MILLVALE (KDKA) -- Could there be any greater gift for a mother than having a child born on Mother's Day?
However, giving birth at a BP gas station may not be part of the story a mother would script.
But a Shaler couple had no other choice this Mother's Day.
"Just gave birth to a baby at a gas station, no big deal," said new dad Kyle Blizzard, of Shaler, speaking about his wife, Vicky Blizzard.
Kyle Blizzard is like many new dads, smiling with joy at the hospital, but early Mother's Day morning was a different story.
The Shaler couple was only 30 weeks along with their second child, never thinking Mother's Day morning would be the day, but boy was it.
"And he said do you want me to keep going? And I said no, you need to pull over!" Vicky Blizzard said.
Vicky Blizzard says she started having contractions early in the morning. Two miles into the drive to West Penn Hospital, the couple had to pull into the BP parking lot in Millvale, and none too soon.
"By the time he got out of the car, which was still running, to my side of the car, and opened it up, I had the baby in my hands," Vicky Blizzard said.
A surveillance camera across the street caught the amazing moments of father jumping into action.
The infant boy was having trouble.
"He was still a little blue, a little gray, wasn't really breathing well, not crying," said Kyle Blizzard. "[I knew] we need to act now to make sure to do everything we can to keep him alive."
The couple is grateful to a 911 operator for walking them through instructions of what to do. Some instructions came easier than others.
"[They said] to grab a string and we're trying to 'MacGyver' things, and they said grab your shoelace. I grabbed my shoelace off my shoe, tie the cord," said Vicky Blizzard.
Thankfully, shoelace medicine didn't need to be administered for long. A very prepared team of first responders soon arrived to take over.
"When I got there, the father was doing CPR and then I took over CPR for the father for a short time," said Millvale Police Officer Zach Potetz.
"We talk before we get there about our plan before we get there," said Kayla Gordon, a paramedic with Ross West View EMS.
And while Kyle Blizzard administered CPR, he knows who really deserves the credit.
"She is a hero, a full-on superhero to go through [that]. I'm getting emotional just talking about it," said Kyle Blizzard, looking at his wife.
Their 3-pound baby boy is still without a name to match his amazing will to live.
