MTA Driver Pulls Over and Delivers a Baby Boy on Bus

LOS ANGELES —  The baby boy was ready to arrive, and he did.

Tuesday morning, lying between the seats on a Metropolitan Transportation Authority Line 20 bus downtown, a Los Angeles woman received help from a bus driver to deliver a healthy baby boy.

Susana Millan and her newborn, Juan Jose, were in good condition later at California Hospital Medical Center, said Katreena Salgado, a hospital spokeswoman.

“That must have stirred up the other passengers,” said Bob Collis, a Fire Department spokesman, who added that his department sees 10 to 12 such deliveries each year.

The drama began around 7 a.m., when, at the third stop of the route, bus driver Evelyn Davis was informed that one of her handful of passengers was in labor. Davis parked at 7th and Hill streets, offered the passengers transfers and turned her attention to Millan, 19.

Millan was due to give birth in about two weeks but had left work early not feeling well, Salgado said. She was taking the bus to her health clinic.

“I tell you, I had no opportunity to think what to do,” said Davis, a 16-year MTA driver and a Gardena resident. “It just happened so fast, all I could do was react.”

Within minutes, Millan’s water broke. She lay between the seats and began pushing and crying out from pain.

“I got on my knees and helped this baby into the world,” Davis said.

Helped by two woman passengers, Davis caught the 6-pound, 6-ounce newborn, wrapped him in his mother’s pants and placed him on Millan’s stomach.

Paramedics arrived minutes later to cut the umbilical cord and take the two to California Hospital, Collis said.

Davis has two daughters and five grandchildren and was her daughter’s labor coach in 1998. Still, she said, “It was an exhilarating feeling.”

“This was the most unusual and exciting thing that’s happened on my bus,” she said.

Davis planned to visit the Millans later in the day at the hospital.

Susana Millan was resting and visiting with her husband, Salgado said. Mother and baby probably will be released today, she added.