Reneé Thorpe (right) gave birth to her daughter Rihanna in the Highway 427
and Dundas area Tuesday morning. Four-year old Redaina (left) accompanies her mom and new sister
photo by erin lewis
News Reporter
Humber paramedic student David Wilson was praised for his efforts when he helped a woman who gave birth on the side of Highway 427 on Tuesday.
“It was early in the morning and we got the call and the call details came in that the mom had already given birth to the baby. So we hurried over, it was pretty close, so we get there and the baby was resting on mom’s tummy and she was lying down in the back of the car,” Wilson said.
“We clamped and cut the cord, got dad to cut the umbilical cord and we took the baby, cleaned her off and put her in the back of the ambulance. We did a quick assessment to make sure everything was okay and took them to the hospital.”
Rihanna Alexis Scully was born just after 4 a.m. Tuesday, 20 minutes after her mother, Reneé Thorpe, said she was was turned away from Humber River Regional Hospital.
“Before I even left the hospital I was practically on the floor in pain because by that time I started to feel the contractions more,” Thorpe said from a hospital bed at Trillium Health Centre in Mississauga. “Then we got onto the highway and I just felt that the baby was coming. And I felt her head, I felt the pressure, I felt everything and I just pushed and…she flew out.”
Renaldo Scully, Thorpe’s fiancée, was on the phone with emergency services as their Lexus steered down the highway.
“I was screaming at first, I didn’t know if she was still breathing or you know, if something was wrong so I was really freaking out at first,” Scully said. “Because my daughter was in the car I didn’t want to overreact too much. But I had to calm down.”
Shortly after the vehicle stopped on the highway, Wilson and his EMS partner Jasmine Jasaval arrived on the scene to the grateful family.
“I give them a lot of credit and I thank them. I really, really thank them for coming to our aid when they did,” Thorpe said. “They responded on time and as soon as they came they just got right to work so I really thank them for what they did.”
Jasaval, also a Humber graduate, shared smiles with Wilson as they waited outside the hospital room to greet the family.
“He just assisted me with cleaning the baby and talking to the little one,” Jasaval said of Wilson. “He was excellent. And then he just held the baby until we got to the hospital.”
Wilson explained the emotions of the job.
“The good news stories really make the job. The bad news, they’re tough.”