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The second son of Katie and Luke Thacker arrived about 5:45 a.m. inside an elevator stuck just short of the 14th floor at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma.
It wasn’t the birth experience his parents had in mind in the pre-dawn hours when they left their Graham home in the driving snow, but they’re counting their blessings since everything turned out fine.
“I was just happy to hear my son cry,” Luke said about 11:30 a.m. while he, his wife and new baby recuperated. “Everything went smoothly considering the circumstances.”
The action started about 4:15 a.m. when Katie went into labor at home. By the time her husband drove to state Route 512 and Pacific Avenue, her contractions were about a minute apart, and she was feeling the need to push, he said.
“She was getting pretty close to having the baby,” Luke said.
He managed to slog into Tacoma – running a couple red lights along the way – and get to the St. Joe’s emergency room before Blake was born.
The decision was made to get Katie up the 14th floor birthing center as quickly as possible, so the couple boarded a service elevator with three nurses, Katie’s mom, sister and midwife.
When the elevator reached the 12th floor, it stopped unexpectedly and the doors opened, Luke said. The crew decided to leave the service elevator and take another, he said.
Luke, Katie’s mom and sister and one of the nurses got off. When they did, the doors closed behind them, and the service elevator started moving again, he said.
The group that got off hustled upstairs, but the service elevator never arrived. It was stuck between floors.
Nurses called hospital maintenance crews, the elevator company and the fire department, but no one could get the elevator moving again. St. Joseph spokesman Gale Robinette said hospital officials weren’t sure late Wednesday why the elevator malfunctioned. Crews were working to repair it.
Luke said the next 15 minutes seemed to take a long, long time to pass.
“To be honest with you, I was just praying,” he said. “I was really scared, just because of the unknown. The minutes seemed like hours.”
Blake – 7 pounds, 15 ounces and 21.5 inches long – couldn’t wait any longer and was born in the elevator. The three nurses stuck in the car helped Katie with the delivery.
“The nurses did an awesome job,” Luke said.
The proud father was able to monitor the delivery via walkie-talkie.
Two elevator technicians eventually got the doors open, and Luke was able to climb down into the car to cut the umbilical cord.
“I took my son and handed him up to a nurse,” he said.
Katie was taken out on a backboard. In all, she was stuck in the elevator for nearly two hours.
During a mid-morning interview, Katie said she doesn’t remember much about the delivery.
“I was kind of out of it,” she said.
One thing occurred to her, though, as she tried to make sense of what happened.
“I kept saying, ‘Did I just really have a baby in an elevator?’ ” she said.
Indeed you did, Katie, a little boy nicknamed Otis, after the famous elevator company.
“I hope that doesn’t stick,” she said.
Adam Lynn: 253-597-8644
adam.lynn@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/crime
Twitter: @TNTadam
