Originally published in Galveston Daily News 

By Chris Paschenko

A couple from Spring wanted to deliver their baby at a Galveston hospital, but the surprise baby boy had other  

plans and greeted the world in the hospital’s parking lot.

Brandon Moreno was born Monday morning shortly after 8 a.m. just as his parents pulled into the main circle parking lot at the University of Texas Medical Branch. A pediatrician happened by and helped the mother, Wendy Barba, 21, and baby, who were in good health.

“I started having contractions about 4 a.m., and I just waited until 6 because they weren’t really that hard,” Barba said of her third pregnancy. “And then I started to feel them harder.”

The couple wanted to have their baby at the medical branch because they used the hospital’s clinics in Conroe.

Juan Moreno, 26, drove his wife through heavy morning rush-hour traffic in Houston, which delayed their arrival in Galveston, Barba said.

Susie Gerik, a medical branch pediatrician, was walking by the main circle drive in front of the hospital towers about 8:20 a.m. when she saw Moreno drive up, honk the horn and run to the passenger side.

His wife had given birth just seconds before.

“I looked at the baby, and he was crying and doing well,” Gerik said. “I wanted to dry him off, so I wrapped him in my lab coat and put him on his mom’s belly.”

Barba held Brandon until labor and delivery and nursery employees arrived, Gerik said.

Brandon’s gender was a bit of a surprise, based on ultrasounds.

“They thought they were having a girl,” Gerik said Monday, noting the parents still hadn’t decided on a name at that time.

Shanta Williby, a labor and deliver nurse of 91/2 years, said babies are from time to time born before arriving at the hospital, but it hadn’t happened in quite a while.