Calif. Firefighters Reunite with Premature Baby Girl They Saved After 'Scary' Highway Birth
"It was so good to hold her and see that she's doing so well," firefighter Jeffery Switkowski said after the reunion
"It was so good to hold her and see that she's doing so well," firefighter Jeffery Switkowski said after the reunion
A group of California firefighters have reunited with a baby they helped save after the child was born on the side of the road well before her due date.
Jazmin Quijano was just 22 weeks pregnant when she suddenly went into labor in June, according to NBC affiliate KCRA and CBS affiliate KOVR.
The mom-to-be was on her way to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Stockton, but the hospital reportedly was not equipped to care for a premature baby.
So Quijano and her partner began their journey to UC Davis Children's Hospital in Sacramento. However, the baby did not wait for them to reach the hospital.
Related: Mom and Baby Reunite with Ambulance Team After Traumatic Birth: 'They Saved Not One, but Two Lives'
Quijano was forced to give birth to an unresponsive baby on the side of Highway 99 around 2 a.m. local time, The Sacramento Bee reported.
“It was scary,” Quijano told the paper. “What happens if you don’t survive? Because she wasn’t crying. She wasn’t even moving at all.”
Quijano performed CPR on her baby until Sacramento firefighters arrived about five minutes later, according to KCRA.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Jeffery Switkowski, a firefighter with Fire Station 6, told KOVR that the baby still was not breathing and “didn't have a pulse” as they loaded her into an ambulance.
“We had to do CPR all the way to the hospital,” Switkowski recalled, “We did everything that we could."
The baby was quickly transported to UC Davis Medical Center, firefighter Andrienne Bisharat told the Bee.
The baby, named Daleyza, spent at least 145 days in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) before she was released on Nov. 15.
On Wednesday, Dec. 18, Daleyza and the firefighters who helped save her life were reunited for the first time at Fire Station 6 in Oak Park.
“Those are her first family,” Quijano explained. “They’re going to always be family no matter what. ... 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.”
Related: Woman Gives Birth on Cape Cod Highway, Husband Cuts Umbilical Cord in Dunkin' Donuts Parking Lot
Switkowski said the reunion was “super special” for everyone, according to KOVR.
“We had no idea that she was going to be here," Switkowski told the station. "It was so good to hold her and see that she's doing so well."
Dr. Steven McElroy, the chief of the neonatology department at UC Davis Medical Center, lauded the firefighters’ efforts to save the baby.
“The odds of being able to survive what she did and do as well as she did is zero,” McElroy told The Sacramento Bee. “So this is truly an amazing, amazing thing.”
