Baby born in hospital parking lot after bomb threat evacuation

Photo courtesy of the family via WBRC

The infant was born on July 5 in an Alabama hospital parking lot, just moments after mom Tessa Kilgore was evacuated from the Walker Baptist Medical Center— along with 75 other patients—because of a bomb threat.

“It was scary. I didn't know if I was going to have to hold her in until we got back inside or what,” Kilgore, 21, told Yahoo! Shine, adding that her baby had come a week ahead of schedule. “I was just like, Are you serious? I was freaking out inside."

Kilgore was in active labor in the hospital’s delivery room at 8:30am last Friday when the Walker County hospital received a bomb threat—one of many in the area that morning, according to WBRC. That forced staffers to evacuate its patients to various places, including the parking lot, a surgery center across the street, and a downtown Jasper community building.

“The employees responded just remarkably. We have an internal disaster code that we followed,” hospital spokesperson Renae McKinney told Shine. “We’re just glad everything turned out as positively as it did. We had no medical complications to speak of.” She added that, as of July 8, no arrests had yet been made in connection with the bomb threats.

Because Kilgore was in the process of giving birth, her stretcher was just wheeled outside. "First we brought her to the back parking lot, but that wasn't far enough away," Dr. LoRissia Autery, the obstetrician on duty, told Yahoo! Shine. "So then we brought her out front. It was raining, so I said, 'How about under some trees?' She was a very good sport about it."

She wound up laboring outside in the drizzly, humid, 80-plus-degree day for half an hour. Along Dr. Autery, she was joined by the baby's father LaDarrick Babbs, several nurses, and some family members, who held blankets around Kilgore for privacy.

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But the 15 or 20 others standing nearby knew what was happening, and when baby Kylie was born, weighing around 2.6 kilograms, they all applauded.

“Everybody was clapping,” Kilgore told the Daily Mountain Eagle. “I think that’s what made me cry the most.” To Shine, she added, "It was overwhelming. I was like, I can't believe I just did that!" She added that she was shocked and relieved to see that Babbs remained calm during the ordeal, because "he's more of a drama queen than I am."

After giving birth, mom and baby were wheeled across the street to the surgical center, where they remained for a couple of hours before returning to the hospital.

All patients were back in their rooms by 1pm, following a bomb search that found nothing, McKinney said. Kilgore and her daughter were released from the hospital on July 7.

Dr. Autery, who worked in New Orleans right after Katrina, when delivery rooms were so full that women were giving birth in the hallways, told Yahoo! Shine that that experience helped keep her calm and prepared.

“Certain things can’t be planned all the time. Birth is one of them," she told the local paper. "The patient remained calm and upbeat and the delivery was just as beautiful outside as they always are inside. It’s an unforgettable experience. I have the best career.”

Beth Greenfield is a Yahoo! Shine staff writer.

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