xboxrulz1405241485 0 Report post Posted February 7, 2006 This is stunning on today's front cover of the Toronto Star: Sun hee Paik, 37, poses with her newborn baby girl, Mary Kim, and her 8 year old daughter Gloria, and EMS Jason Bodnar in St. Michaelâs Hospital where she was taken after giving birth to her baby on the Wellesley subway station platform Monday. Baby born on TTC platform Most passersby milled about â oblivious Feb. 7, 2006. 06:59 AM AMY BROWN-BOWERS AND ISABEL TEOTONIO STAFF REPORTERS For Ana Giczey, the scream was unmistakable. And when she looked across the crowded subway car and saw the pregnant woman standing, with feet wide apart, her suspicion was confirmed. "I know that scream, I've had two babies and that means the baby is coming," said Giczey, whose trek downtown during morning rush hour yesterday to do errands climaxed with her delivering a baby on a crowded subway platform. As Giczey prepared to spring into action, she was struck by the fact that most passengers milled about â oblivious. She said no one listened to the woman or her husband, who pleaded with passengers to call 911. "I saw this lady screaming, `Ahhhh,' like in pain," Giczey told the Toronto Star after delivering Mary Kim, a 6-pound, 4-ounce baby girl, on the southbound platform of Wellesley station â thanks, in part, to the help of a brown shoelace. Hui Cheon Kim and his wife, Sun Hee Paik, had left their Scarborough home with their three young children and were heading to St. Michael's Hospital. The 37-year-old had been experiencing intense labour pains but wasn't expecting to give birth until today. When the doors opened at Giczey's destination, Wellesley station, at about 9:20 a.m., the 41-year-old seamstress saw Kim pull Paik onto the platform. Paik collapsed next to the yellow line as her water broke. As she lay on the ground, her shaken husband held one hand and another female passenger held the other. Other passengers looked but didn't stop, Giczey said. "(Paik) just stepped from the train, lay down on the floor and started screaming," said Giczey, who grabbed the woman's two younger children, aged 2 and 8, and pushed them toward the wall as the train pulled away. The eldest daughter, 11, stayed by her mother's side. "The TTC guy making sure everyone gets off closed the (car) doors, he didn't stop and call 911," Giczey said, adding that even though they were at the end of the platform, she was stunned that more people didn't offer to help and the trains continued running. By that time, "half of the baby was already out," Giczey said. At 9:25 a.m., she pulled the newborn out, wrapped her in a blanket that one of the children was carrying and rested her on her mother's stomach. In the meantime, the next train pulled into Wellesley station. Passengers got off and sidestepped the drama, but those on the train pushed the passenger assistance alarm. Giczey tried dialling 911 from her cellphone but there was no reception, so she ran to a nearby pay phone. The operator gave Giczey instructions to tie the umbilical cord and suggested she use a shoelace. Just then, a third train pulled into the station and Giczey began pleading with passengers getting off for a shoelace. She stopped one man, explained the situation and he pulled the brown lace from his dress shoe. He handed Kim the lace and left, Giczey recounted. A woman who had gotten off that train wrapped the infant in her coat and tied the lace around the umbilical cord. Trains weren't stopped because they didn't pose a danger to the woman or her baby said Marilyn Bolton, a TTC spokeswoman. As paramedics arrived on the scene at about 9:45 a.m., an announcement was made on incoming trains that service was slow because a woman had just given birth, said passenger Jim Burnett, who works at city hall. A second announcement came over the speakers that said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, she just had a baby girl," he recalled. Jason Bodnar was the first paramedic to arrive. "The lady who called 911 was happy to see us â she was shaking," Bodnar said, adding Giczey quietly slipped away when paramedics arrived. The family was taken to St. Mike's, arriving at 10:15 a.m. "I'm good," Paik said from her hospital bed yesterday afternoon. "There was so much pain, it was unbelievable, but now it's okay." As the beaming mother gingerly stroked Mary, her other children looked on with relief. "I felt so scared because my mom thought she was going to die," said 11-year-old Rebekah, still shaken from the ordeal. "I'm happy to see my baby sister." Giczey was also relieved to hear Mary was doing fine and was scheduled to be released from hospital yesterday afternoon with her mother. The good Samaritan said she had no medical training and had never participated in a birth other than her own children. And the first thing she did after leaving Wellesley station? "I went into Starbucks and couldn't even order a coffee." With files from Paul Moloney This is an amazing story, but I don't get is, if you see someone on the subway platform who had given birth, the least you could do is to assist the person. It's during rush hour! There's like 3000 within an hour riding the subway! Your opinion(s)? -----Posts Merged-----szupie whoops, the source is here I left that out... xboxrulz Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iGuest 3 Report post Posted February 8, 2006 That's a cool story. Read though it all pretty well :)Yeah, it's odd thta not much people helped and no one called early ahead of time until one lady was nice enough. That's still scary though, most people probably thought that there's bound to be someone to help, that's why they didn't help too, or was just too busy as most people are. Thankfully they saw some good samaritans who were kind enough to lend the help, and the shoe lace. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sarah81 0 Report post Posted February 9, 2006 This is stunning on today's front cover of the Toronto Star: This is an amazing story, but I don't get is, if you see someone on the subway platform who had given birth, the least you could do is to assist the person. It's during rush hour! There's like 3000 within an hour riding the subway! 1064337834[/snapback] People probably didn't want to "waste" time trying to help the woman out *because* it was rush hour. They were either trying to get to or from work. I'm sure that a lot of the people honestly didn't notice what was going on. They were probably absorbed in newspapers, MP3 players, whatever. Those aren't excuses. Even though I'm a very cynical and jaded person, I'm sometimes surprised by our overall lack of humanity. Honestly ... had the woman been one of us, we would have wanted someone to do something. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mediaboy 0 Report post Posted March 17, 2006 What irks me is those damn ads on the TTC about what CARING and NICE people the TTC staff are. Have you ever read those ads?!? They're about how proud they are because an employee saw a lost kid and made a phone call...for doing the bare minimum of their job. This incident is a great shame to the TTC, it's employees and Toronto. We suck. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
XIII 0 Report post Posted March 17, 2006 What irks me is those damn ads on the TTC about what CARING and NICE people the TTC staff are. Have you ever read those ads?!? They're about how proud they are because an employee saw a lost kid and made a phone call...for doing the bare minimum of their job. This incident is a great shame to the TTC, it's employees and Toronto. We suck. I can specify these ads as a "try to be human beings", that's what we are trying to do now, we are acting as if we are human beings, but sorry, we aren't, as sarah said, all of these people were absorbed in newspapers, mp3 players, may checking thier mail or mobile messages inbox, ... etc., anything but looking or give any attention to other people, it's not technology which killed our feelings, that is us who want to get away from any thing ties us to others or to feel even about them, i can specify it as an "escape away from human beings" Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jeigh1405241495 0 Report post Posted March 17, 2006 That's pretty insane how few people would stop to help. Me and a few friends a couple years back did a social experiment where we had someone act out being in various levels of distress to see who would react, and in almost every case someone stopped nearly immediately and others at least took note. Maybe it was because the city I'm in is small so it lacks the uber-urban mindset. Maybe it WAS that there was so many people, everyone assumed someone else was laready helping...I don't know. Personally I'm originally from a tiny little town, and if you see someone in need of help you just act. It's not a question of IF you should help them but HOW. Now I can understand in a bigger city being more cautious about the help you offer, but you'd think that many people wouldn't just ignore the situation... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
