Cabbie Picks Up One, Delivers Two
A woman who had just gone into labor Monday morning hailed a cab near MacArthur Park and gasped a one-word plea: “Hospital!”
Maria Gonzales, 36, of Los Angeles then handed the cabbie a hospital registration card with the address for County-USC Medical Center, and the taxi sped off.
By the time the cab reached the corner of 1st Street and Broadway downtown, however, driver Philip Gleason, 54, realized the baby was not going to wait.
“I knew we’d never make it,” he said. “I heard her moaning and groaning and . . . I knew he was coming up soon.”
He opened the door on Gonzales’ side and positioned her legs so that they stretched out the door. Then he waved down a Los Angeles police officer. A California Highway Patrol officer also stopped to help.
The baby boy came out fast.
“He only took about two minutes,” Gleason said.
Gonzales and the infant were transported to County-USC Medical Center where “they are both doing fine,” said Adelaida De La Cerda, a hospital spokeswoman.
As the baby made his untimely debut, the taxi meter kept running.
Gleason said the $14.30 fare was on him.
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