A woman gave birth in an elevator in a Washington hospital early Wednesday after it broke down on its way up to a 14th-floor birthing center, The News Tribune reported.
After going into labor just before dawn, Katie Thacker and her husband Luke drove to St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash., and were quickly ushered into the service elevator to take her to the maternity ward.
The elevator doors opened suddenly when it unexpectedly stopped on the 12th floor.
Luke, two relatives and a nurse decided to get out of the elevator car to take another one -- leaving two nurses and a midwife with Katie.
But the service elevator never made it to the 14th floor, after becoming stuck in between the 12th and 14th floors.
Blake Thatcher, who was quickly nicknamed Otis in honor of the world's largest elevator manufacturer, was born inside the stuck elevator at 5:45 a.m.
Two elevator technicians were eventually able to get the doors open and Luke climbed down into the car and cut the baby's umbilical cord.
The proud mom said she could not remember much about being in labor, except one major point.
"I kept saying, 'Did I just really have a baby in an elevator?'" she said.
