Watch CBS News

Icy Roads, Flat Tire Can't Keep Newborn From Delivery

DENVER (CSB4) - Call it the Miracle on Ice.

Early Friday morning, Sergey Tsushko and his pregnant wife, Angela, rushed across frozen, slick roads to from their house in Thornton to North Suburban Medical Center because their son Elijah couldn't wait to greet the world.

After Angela went into labor around midnight, the Tsushkos headed to the hospital.

"We were about to leave and I opened the door: There's a lot of snow," Sergey told CBS4.

And ice -- coating streets everywhere across the Denver metro area.

"It was horrible roads," Sergey said. "It was ice everywhere you tried to drive."

As the Tsushkos made their way to the hospital, he told Angela: "We're almost here, we're almost here." His wife tried to cooperate: "OK, OK, but it's coming," Sergey recounted.

They couldn't stop. Elijah was impatient.

Then, as the Tsushkos pulled into the hospital's parking lot, their car hit a curb and busted a flat tire.

"I'm trying to park, and she's like 'No, go to the emergency room,' " Sergey said.

Angela waited inside the van, as her husband ran inside to fetch a wheelchair.

Sergey told her: "OK, baby, sit down."

Sorry, Sergey, this baby wasn't waiting. "No, I can't," Angela told him. "I'm delivering."

"So I delivered it," he said.

How was that?

"It was interesting," he said.

As hospital staff rushed to help, Sergey discovered complications: The umbilical cord was wrapped twice around the baby's neck and knotted.

But they managed to free it and handed his new son to his wife.

Angela and Elijah are both doing well. He's not big -- 5 pounds, 4 ounces.

But his birthday was huge.

"It's a miracle," Sergey said. "It's so great."

Impatience runs in the family. Their first was born just 20 minutes after they reached the hospital.

Tsushko 1
Sergey Tsushko and his son Elijah (credit: Tsushko family)
View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.