Paramedics, Officers Help Save Newborn Baby Born at Pittsburgh Gas Station

A stock newborn photo Pixabay / CC BY

Pittsburgh-area paramedics and officers saved a baby who was born inside a gas station parking lot on Mother’s Day, it was reported.

“We were about maybe 2 miles from home. Get out of the car. Run around to the passenger side. She had already had the baby and was holding it in her arms. He was very blue. We couldn’t tell if he was breathing or not,” said Kyle and Vicky Blizzard, the parents of the child, according to WPXI.

The Blizzards were in a panic after delivering the child, as their newborn wasn’t breathing, according to the station.

The baby came about 10 weeks early, WPXI reported.

Surveillance footage captured the two pulling up to a BP gas station in Millvale as they were going to a hospital.

“She said, ‘No the baby is coming now. Pull over. I’m delivering the baby in the car,” Kyle Blizzard recalled.

Before he could get to the other side of the vehicle, the child was delivered.

But the baby wasn’t breathing, so he performed CPR after calling 911.

“It was so hard to believe I’m actually doing CPR right now. This is a real life-or-death situation,” Kyle Blizzard was quoted by the news outlet as saying.

They said the baby wasn’t breathing for about five minutes.

“You think, all of this, this can’t be it, if something were to happen to him,” Vicky Blizzard added.

“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 also recalled to WTAE. “I would say he most likely was not breathing, based on his color and the fact that he was not crying,” added Kyle Blizzard.

When paramedics arrived, they were able to revive the child.

“I was just happy that he was responding much better than he had been even moments before,” paramedic Kayla Gordon told the news outlet.

The newborn, who was not named, is in the neonatal intensive care unit at West Penn Hospital, where he will stay for the next two months or so.

“Between the things that they did and the paramedics, they saved this baby’s life,” said Dr. Giovanni Ianeri of West Penn Hospital.

The parents, meanwhile, were grateful for the assistance.

“We are so thankful and feel so blessed that we had those folks on call that day and to be there with us,” Kyle Blizzard said.

Millvale police Officer Zach Potetz was the first of the responders to help the new parents, WTAE reported.

“It definitely feels good,” Potetz said. “There’s definitely a happy ending to it, and especially with it being on Mother’s Day. It was special.”

“We have equipment that needs to be gotten out of the ambulance before we can begin to render care,” said Marc Ford, with Ross/West View EMS. “Zach was able to go over and take over CPR, and as Glenn and I went over, we took over from Zach, and we started taking care of the little one from there.”

Kyle said that even though administered CPR, he knows who really deserves the credit: his wife.

“She is a hero, a full-on superhero to go through [that]. I’m getting emotional just talking about it,” said Kyle Blizzard, CBS Pittsburgh reported.