Firefighters in Sacramento, California had a sweet reunion earlier this month when they reconnected with six-month-old Daleyza, a baby they saved when she was born on June 21 at an astonishing 22 weeks along the side of the freeway.
Daleyza’s mother, Jazmin Quijano, was en route to the hospital when she felt that little Daleyza wouldn’t be waiting much longer. Her partner pulled over along the side of Highway 99 and immediately called 911. As he did so, Daleyza was born.
“It was scary,” Quijano said. “What happens if you don’t survive? Because she wasn’t crying. She wasn’t even moving at all.” Quijano wrapped the tiny baby in a sweatshirt and waited for help to arrive.
Responding firefighter Eric Chin was among the first on the scene, and described the situation to CBS News.
“We’re immediately going back to the basics of CPR because we don’t get trained on premature babies that young,” Chin said.
“We find out that it’s a premature baby, so that raises the stress level a lot,” said firefighter Jeffrey Switkowski.
He added, “We got the baby to the ambulance and unfortunately, she wasn’t breathing and she didn’t have a pulse. So, we had to do CPR all the way to the hospital, we did everything that we could.”
The first responders worked hard to save Daleyza, including giving her oxygen and keeping her warm. Doctors in the NICU department at UC Davis Children’s Hospital credit their quick-thinking with saving the little girl’s life.
Dr. Steven McElroy, the chief of the neonatology department who oversaw Dalezya’s treatment, said the survival rate of babies born at 22 weeks is about 28%. In California, it is legal to abort babies the same age as Dalezya — 22 weeks and even older.
“But that’s assuming that you’re born in the hospital with us, with all the equipment, with everything else,” explained McElroy. “If I had to come up with a number for you, for this situation, (the survival rate) had been zero. Like the odds of being able to survive what she did and do as well as she did is zero. So this is truly an amazing, amazing thing.”
“The doctor told me, ‘If you believe in God, pray, pray for a miracle because we will do everything in our power, but it will also depend on God,’” Quijano said. “They told me she was a miracle because not a lot of babies can accomplish this.”
Quijano said Daleyza spent 146 days in the NICU. Remarkably, she was discharged in November with a clean bill of health. The family made sure to visit with the first responders who saved Daleyza’s life.
“They’re going to always be family no matter what,” said Quijano. “And she’s always going to hear about them when she’s older and she has her own kids. We’re always going to talk about this.”
[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]
