COLORADO SPRINGS — A chance encounter between a police officer at the end of his shift, a pediatrician from Pennsylvania and a mother in labor Friday ended with the successful birth of a baby girl on the side of a Colorado Springs road.
It started at 6:36 p.m., when Colorado Springs Sgt. Keith Wrede saw Marc Hermanson frantically waving him down at the North Academy Boulevard exit off northbound Interstate 25.
Wrede found Amanda Evanson in the front passenger seat of a minivan in labor, close to delivering a baby. The couple was heading to Memorial Hospital but couldn’t make it there in time — and they didn’t have a minute to spare.
Neither did Wrede.
In the span of seconds, the police sergeant had to prepare to deliver the child with the aid of a police dispatcher, something he had never done. But before he did, a woman appeared, asking if she could help.
“It was absolutely my luckiest day ever,” said Wrede, who has been with the department for 15 years.
Dr. Patty Miller, a pediatrician for Children’s Community Pediatrics in Pittsburgh, was on her way to a hotel when she passed the minivan and saw Evanson lying on her back.
Miller, who is visiting daughter Sarah, an Air Force Academy senior, for parents’ weekend, thought she could help.
Little did she know that she was right on time for Wrede, Hermanson and Evanson.
Wrede handed the doctor a pair of gloves, and in a matter of moments, Katriana was born.
“It knew what it was doing,” Miller said. “And it just came right out.”
It was 6:39 p.m., three minutes after Wrede was flagged down.
Mother and daughter were healthy and headed to the hospital in an ambulance.
“It was pretty amazing,” said Miller, who estimated it had been about 30 years since she last delivered a baby. “I’m just so thankful that we happened to stop and we were at the right time, the right place.”
