Sam and Tyler Wakasugi are back home with their new additions after a delivery on Sept. 9 straight out of a movie scene.
Sgt. Tyler Wakasugi with the Brooklyn Park Police Department happened to be off the morning of Sept. 9 when his wife went into labor with their twins.
“I’ve never really needed to call 911, but man it felt good to hear sirens and see people I know coming up to help me,” he said.
“Right before 6 a.m. I woke up to one bad back contraction and my water breaking. It was all a matter of minutes, and we were in the car heading to labor and delivery with Ellie in the backseat coming with us,” Sam Wakasugi said.
Ellie is their 1-½-year-old daughter.
Sam was 33 weeks with her twins and still figured she had plenty of time.
“We were driving, and she was telling me that there’s something going on. It’s not feeling that great and then it just suddenly ramped up and she was clearly in a lot of pain. Right at that moment, we took a fork in the road and went onto the highway on 610, and we didn’t really make it much further than that. She was telling me that she was basically having this baby in the car right now,” Tyler said.
“I called the shift supervisor, who happens to be one of my very closest friends. I called him. I thought it would be a little quicker to get some help and he’s like, ‘Yep I’m on it,'” Tyler recounted.
Body-camera video from that officer captures him running to help the Wakasugis who were pulled over on the side of the road.
“Pretty much the second I pulled over, I ran around Sam’s side of the car and got her kind of positioned, Ethan just came shooting out,” Tyler said.
“Then we were just stuck there because he was still attached, and I didn’t have anything to deal with the umbilical cord,” he added.
The officer who came to help cut off Tyler’s shoelace to cut the umbilical cord on the highway.
But, the dramatic scene wasn’t over with another baby on the way.
“We were just primarily concerned that the second one was coming. He’s like, ‘Holy crap, this first one came out.’ Now how fast is the second one going to come out?”
Their daughter didn’t seem to mind the chaos unfolding in front of her.
“I just saw her little sparkly shoes just sitting in the backseat. She’s just minding her own business, just sitting back there like nothing’s happening,” Sam recalled.
Sam made it to the ambulance and was taken to North Memorial where Carter was born an hour after his brother and in a different county.
“Ethan Anthony was born at 6:34 a.m. in the car. He’s our highway boy. He was four pounds, almost one ounce. Then, Carter was born at the hospital, Carter James. He was five-and-a-half pounds when he was born,” Sam said.
“The thing that just stuck with me was how like, how immediately supporting all these people were. I work with them, so I see them every day and I, they treat everybody in that manner. I’ve just never been on the receiving end of it,” Tyler said.
“Now Ellie loves cop cars when they pass by. Ever since that morning,” he added.
Liz Collin
Liz Collin has been a truth-teller for 20 years as a multi-Emmy-Award-winning reporter and anchor. Liz is a Worthington, Minnesota native who lives in the suburbs with her husband, son and loyal lab.
