one of those small miracles

Ike evacuee gives birth in New Braunfels

An evacuee from Hurricane Ike gave birth in the bathroom of a shelter Friday with the aide of an expert in geriatric psychiatry who delivered his first baby in two decades.

"It's kind of like riding a bike," Dr. Mark Burns told the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung in a report for Saturday's newspaper.

Ku Paw delivered a baby girl on the floor of the girls restroom at Church Hill Middle School in New Braunfels with the aid of Burns, intensive care nurse Peggy Bielke and a few volunteers.

Paw, an evacuee from Calhoun County along the Texas coast, was staying with about 270 others. She was evaluated at a hospital earlier Friday but returned to the shelter with the expectation she wouldn't go into labor until Monday.

Burns had been asked by New Braunfels City Councilwoman Kathleen Krueger to stop by the school and see a few patients. Burns said he was leaving when he was alerted that Paw was in labor.

"There are few things more exciting than delivering a new life into the world," Burns said. "It's one of the great privileges of being a physician."

The mother and the infant, her fourth child, were taken to CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital-New Braunfels. A hospital spokeswoman told The Associated Press on Friday night that she could not release any information about them.