The Shadow
CLIFTON FORGE – A routine traffic stop was not the reason two Virginia State Troopers from Alleghany County were called to Interstate 64 in Rockbridge County Thursday morning. It was more urgent, the stork was making a delivery.
A father and mother-to-be from Clifton Forge were on their way to Stonewall Jackson Hospital in Lexington for the birth of their child when Mother Nature took a hand and stepped-up the delivery time.
A spokesman for the Virginia State Police Division VI in Salem said Friday, the Emergency Communications Center received a call at 7:53 a. m. Thursday morning from Raymond Workman, 27, of Keswick Street in Clifton Forge who asked for a trooper’s assistance. His wife, Kaylia, 21, was about to deliver their baby and they were heading east on I-64 in Alleghany County, desperately trying to get to the hospital on time.
Five minutes later, Workman called back and said the baby was beginning to crown. The dispatcher advised him to immediately pull off the interstate and stop the vehicle which he did. He pulled onto the eastbound shoulder and stopped his car at the 48 Mile Marker in Rockbridge County about 10 miles west of Lexington.
State Police Trooper Donnie C. Ratliff arrived on the scene at 8:06 a. m. and with the assistance of R. K. Hawse Jr. who arrived soon after, assisted in delivering a healthy baby boy at 8:13 a. m. Also in the car with the Workmans was Kaylia’s mother.
Shortly after the baby’s arrival, a rescue squad arrived and transported the mother and baby to Stonewall Jackson Hospital in Lexington.
Kaydan Issiah Workman, born Thursday, Dec. 3 in Rockbridge County on Interstate 64, weighed 6 pounds, 2 ounces and measured 18 inches in length. Mother and newborn are reported to be doing well and should be arriving back home in Clifton Forge today after spending Friday in the hospital.
