MTA BUS OPERATOR EVELYN DAVIS DELIVERS BABY BOY
THIS MORNING IN ‘MIRACLE ON 7^TH STREET’  

(Los Angeles, Sept. 12) ¾ Though the resume of 48-year-old MTA Operator Evelyn Davis does not indicate any prior medical experience, she suddenly was thrust into the role of midwife early this morning when she delivered a healthy, bouncing baby boy while on the job.

Davis, a 16-year operator who drives out of Division 6 in Venice, set out on her first Line 20 run this morning thinking it would be just another day.  By  7:30 a.m., however, at the corner of 7th and Hill streets, she held a vital new life in her hands.  Suddenly, the day turned from ordinary to quite extraordinary.

Davis, a Gardena resident, was boarding passengers when she was asked to call paramedics ¾ a woman on her bus was having labor pains.  She had hardly hung up from notifying MTA Bus Operations Control when the woman had her first contraction.

Davis cleared the bus, offering passengers transfers.  Two women stayed aboard to assist the soon-to-be mother, who spoke only Spanish.

By this point, the woman was on the floor of the bus, ready to deliver. “I saw her water break and then I saw the baby’s head coming,” said Davis, a grandmother of five.  “I didn’t have time to think about what to do – I just had to react.”

Suddenly, the baby was resting in her hands.  She placed the child, a healthy little boy, on the mother’s stomach.

“He looked beautiful,” Davis recalls.  “His mom was fine and had a smile on her face.  I gave her a hug and told her I was the godmother!”

A few minutes later, City Fire Department paramedics arrived, checked mother and child and whisked the pair away to California Hospital Medical Center.  The hospital reports mother and child are doing well.

“It was the most amazing thing that ever happened to me,” said Davis, still somewhat stunned at the event.  “I felt ecstatic and very honored.”

Nevertheless, by 10 a.m., Davis was back on her route picking up passengers – but still thinking about the special little passenger who came briefly into her life at the corner of 7th and Hill.

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MTA-101

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