A woman gave birth to a baby girl on the 5 Freeway in Anaheim while her husband drove her to the hospital Wednesday night.
Jeffrey Kiyomura said it was around 9 p.m. when he and his wife, Ally, left their home in Gardena to drive to UCI Medical Center because her contractions were about four minutes apart.
“She figured the baby was going to come early,” Kiyomura, 33, said in an interview with OnScene.TV while standing on the side of the freeway after his wife had given birth.
While driving to the hospital, he said his wife told him to pull over because “the baby was going to come out.” He steered their SUV onto the shoulder of the carpool lane on the 5 Freeway transition to the 91. He originally thought they could make it to the hospital, he said, but the baby had other plans.
“I got out of the car and came out to the passenger side, and all of a sudden the head was out, and the baby was already here,” he said.
Orange County Fire Authority officials said they received a call at around 9:30 for unspecified medical aid and found the Kiyomuras in their car on the road’s shoulder.
Jorge Robledo, OCFA fire captain, said officials then rendered medical care. Video from OnScene shows paramedics and fire officials along with Anaheim and Orange County fire authorities gently sliding Ally Kiyomura and her newborn, who was covered in a green blanket with soccer balls, out of the front passenger seat of the car, onto a stretcher and into the back of an ambulance.
Ally Kiyomura and baby were transported to Anaheim Regional Medical Center.
Robledo said he has assisted in several deliveries before but that freeway births are rare.
“The baby is happy, healthy — a normal delivery is what it seems,” Robledo said.
This was not the Kiyomuras’ first child; last year, the couple had a stillbirth, Jeffrey Kiyomura said in a text message to The Times.
Ally Kiyomura was feeling happy and thankful for a happy and healthy baby, he wrote.
“I feel like this is all a dream,” he said in a text message. “I’m happy the baby is here and healthy along with my wife. I am so glad that everything turned out just right without any complications.”
The couple has not chosen a name yet, he said.
Alexandra E. Petri
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