Two moms just minutes from giving birth in their vehicles near Victoria General Hospital were aided by View Royal volunteer firefighters on Friday.
The firefighters were at a two-vehicle crash on the Helmcken Road overpass about 6:30 a.m. when they were called to help the women.
Kristi Shayan, 25, was in the passenger seat of a pickup driven by her husband, Jessy, on the way to drop off their 20-month-old son Jasper at a friend’s house, when Kristi’s contractions started getting stronger and coming closer together.
“It was a ton of pain,” she said. “When we hit Colwood, my water broke and I knew for sure he was coming no matter what. There was no pulling over. I was practically begging my [unborn] son not to come in the truck.”
Jessy put his foot on the gas, but morning traffic was slower than usual.
As they approached the hospital, Jessy called 911 to alert hospital staff.
Everybody, including Jessy, told Kristi not to push. (It was not a choice, she said.)
A minute or two from the hospital, the couple turned onto the Helmcken overpass and into a traffic jam.
A truck had been hit by a car that ran a red light. RCMP, B.C. Ambulance and View Royal volunteer firefighters were all on scene. Both drivers were taken to hospital with minor injuries, said West Shore RCMP spokeswoman Kathy Rochlitz.
Traffic was being diverted back onto the highway, and nothing was moving.
“This guy starts honking his horn and I think he wants to get by so I look over and I see his wife is having a baby,” said View Royal Fire Chief Paul Hurst.
“She said, ‘I’m not going to make it to the hospital,’ and upon a quick observation I realized that was indeed fact.”
A firefighter jumped into the driver’s seat of the couple’s truck and Jessy and son Jasper were transferred into a police car.
“The decision was made that she was 500 metres from the hospital and that giving birth in a pickup on an overpass, at an accident scene, was not the place,” Hurst said.
Police escorted the vehicle carrying Kristi to the hospital.
“We got there and a bunch of people were waiting with a stretcher,” Kristi said. “They wheeled me into the emergency and I was in there maybe 10 minutes and he was out.”
Baby Maddox was born at nine pounds, five ounces. Dad and big brother Jasper saw the whole delivery.
Kristi said her husband, a leading seaman at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt, was calm and cool throughout the ordeal.
“I’m really proud of him,” she said. “He was super calm and my little guy [Jasper] didn’t cry once.”
The birth of baby Maddox was the firefighters’ second call to help a woman in labour.
A woman whose water broke at 5:30 a.m. suddenly had her contractions become more frequent.
While driving on Watkiss Way on the edge of the hospital grounds, the father called 911 and was told to pull over. Emergency responders met the couple, and five minutes later the woman gave birth to a baby girl in a delivery room.
“It all worked out in the end,” Hurst said.
