Paramedics delivered a baby girl in the parking lot of a View Royal pub on Tuesday, after a couple believed to be en route to the hospital pulled in when the birth started to happen a little too soon.
Tara Andersen, front-end manager for Four Mile Brew Pub, said security cameras showed the couple reaching the lot at 11:37 a.m.
“They pulled in quite quickly and grabbed the first spot they could at the top of the parking lot,” she said. “By 12 o’clock they have a baby.”
The camera footage shows the fire department arriving at 11:44 a.m. followed by paramedics four minutes later, she said.
Mother and child were transferred to the ambulance and taken to the hospital right after, Andersen said.
She said the lunch crowd at the pub didn’t have a clear view of the drama going on outside.
“It was all blocked off by emergency vehicles.”
Staff members were ready to help but weren’t needed, Andersen said.
B.C. Emergency Health Services said it received a call about 11:40 a.m. about a person in need of medical assistance and sent two ambulances to the scene.
View Royal Fire Rescue also responded and Assistant Chief Heath Bevan said paramedics oversaw the birth inside the couple’s car.
He said he was part of a crew that got there slightly before the ambulances. “We just got things prepared for when the paramedics arrived, and helped with emotional support and scene support.”
Bevan said he has been involved in a couple of similar incidents during his firefighting career, and called Tuesday’s birth a “fantastic” outcome.
Andersen said she is familiar with stories about women giving birth on the way to the hospital in a taxi or some other vehicle, but believes nothing like that has ever taken place at the historic Island Highway pub.
“We’ve had ambulances and fire trucks over the years for different things, but not for a baby being delivered that I know of.”
“It’s a pretty cool story.”
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