A locked door, a desperate dad and a parking lot birth

50 years later, Weilers share story of the night of their daughter’s birth

Sometimes you have to do what you have to do, even if that means breaking down a door to get help for your wife who isin labor in the parking lot.

For Betsy and Tom Weiler of Athens, the memories of that spring night 50 years ago when their daughter Vicki was born are as fresh as yesterday.

With Vicki celebrating her 50th birthday next week, Betsy felt it was time to share their story with the Medford community. She recently reached out to The Star News thinking others in the community may find it interesting.

This is her story: “Fifty years ago on April 18, 1972 right after midnight, our daughter Vicki was born at the Medford Memorial Hospital. How this all happened is my story, Earlier in the evening on April 17, 1972 I went into labor but it seemed slow so I was in no hurry to get to the hospital.

Then about 11:30 p.m. everything seemed to speed up so I told my husband Tom we needed to get to the hospital. He drove us up from Athens and we walked to the hospital doors and found them locked.

Being so late at night we had no idea where we could go to phone and find out how to get in the hospital.

I had a bad labor pain as we were walking back to the car, and he thought I would have the baby right there in the parking lot. But he finally got me to the car and he drove around to the service doors to find them locked. Then it dawned on us maybe there was an emergency door somewhere so we drove around until we found those, but they also were locked.

So we went around to the front doors again, and that’s when I knew the baby was coming and we had to get in. Tom parked the car and went running to the front doors to still find them locked. He saw a sign that said “use other door” because one of the two doors was cracked.

Without thinking, he kicked in the other door and was running down the hall when a worker stopped him as she was shaking because of him breaking in. When he explained I was having the baby in the car, she had someone come out and by then, I had our daughter in the car and was holding her in my coat to keep her warm.

They had us drive around to the emergency entrance where two ladies met us with a stretcher and lifted me and the baby on it. They got me registered and in a room but said the baby would have to be isolated because of being born outside the hospital.

Only thing was, I ended up in a room with another lady I knew who had her baby earlier in the day, and when it came to feeding time, both babies were brought in at the same time. But yet mine was kept in isolation the whole time we were there.

Then one worker kept telling us Mr. Gene Arnett, the administrator at the time, wanted to talk to us about the broken door but we never saw nor met with him.

Someone asked Tom why he kicked in the door that wasn’t cracked and he said, “ Well, it said on the sign “use other door” so I did!” He told them he used his head meaning he was thinking what to do, but they thought he used his head to break the door. We still have a laugh about that one.

They explained why all the doors were locked saying they were having trouble with people coming in trying to steal drugs. But no one told us they would be locked. They also asked why we didn’t use the button to signal that we needed to get in and we told them we never saw it. Looking for it when we left the hospital, we saw it was about 6 feet away from the door on the left.

They said they did have problems with the location of it because others also said they never saw it.

I sure am glad things are a lot different at the hospital now.”

As far as Vicki, being born in a parking lot doesn’t seem to have left a negative lasting impact, other thangiving her parents a good story to tell every year.

“Vicki is now celebrating her 50th birthday and this beginning never slowed her down in life. She’s a very smart girl enjoying life. We are always very proud of her and her family,” Betsy said, “Because we never went to the Star News with this story, only a few people knew what happened then. But seeing this happened so long ago, I think it’s a special story and I want to dedicate it to our daughter Vicki and let her actually see it in print,” they said about the desire to share it now.