San Francisco is a busy town – especially this time of year. The California streets are the last place that anyone would want to give birth, but for one homeless woman, this became a reality on Monday November 23. But luckily, she wasn’t alone for very long. After seeing the woman giving birth, a bike messenger hopped off of his bike and picked the baby up off of the ground, even removing his own shirt so that he could wrap the child up in it.
Local DJ and witness Ayrron Comini said, “He was a hell of a hero. Nobody else stepped up, but he did. He literally took the shirt off his back and took care of that baby. I came out just after the baby hit the ground. It was just this purple little thing.”
That was when the bike messenger showed up.
Comini recalls the event, saying, “I watched the guy jump off his bike, take off his shirt and wrap it around the kid and cradle the baby. Everyone was standoffish. But he jumped in and probably saved that baby’s life.”
It appeared that the mother, whose identity is also unknown, was in shock from the birth. The messenger held the baby boy in his arms, cleaning out his eyes. He then offered the mom to hold her child, but she had just sat there with a terrified look on her face. After authorities were on the scene, the messenger went inside Crazy Horse, the local bar that Comini DJ’s at to wash up, where he was given a fresh shirt. Comini says, “He’s your story, I wish I got his name. He mentioned that he has two kids of his own. I know he had a Golden State Warriors tattoo on his chest. That’s a clue.”
The San Francisco Fire Department, along with police, arrived at the scene shortly after baby’s birth. Public information officer for the SFFD, Mindy Talmadge could not provide many details about the incident, but did mention that the woman had said she was not aware that she was pregnant, and that the child was born prematurely at 32 weeks. Talmadge noted that during transportation to San Francisco General Hospital, that both mother and child were in good condition. It was confirmed by Brent Andrew, hospital information officer, that both mom and baby had checked out of the hospital.
Local news outlet, SFGate attempted to locate the bike messenger hero, calling up several companies to try and track down the man. However, none of the companies could identify the man. Marcus Miller, owner of CenterCity Deliver, recalls a conversation he had with an colleague, saying, “My office mate told me about what happened when I stepped into the office yesterday. He asked me if I knew who it was. We had a colorful conversation about it. We started asking around. People want to know who this guy is.”
On the other hand, some people believe this highlights the homelessness problem in the city. Someone had decided to capture the birth on video, that person remains unidentified. Local news station KRON ran a version that was edited of the footage. Some of the city’s residents wonder why a person would film the event rather than help the messenger.
Clinical case manager at San Francisco’s Homeless Prenatal Program Alison Lucas believes that a video such as that one can highlight the homelessness issue and that not every person is getting the care that they so desperately deserve.
