Jeanne Smith and Kyle Monson of Grand Marais planned to give birth to their baby boy at a Duluth hospital. However, baby Elias David Monson had other plans. During the long, snowy drive, it became clear that they would not have time to get to a Duluth hospital, so instead Elias was welcomed to the world at Lake View Memorial Hospital in Two Harbors.
Grand Marais newborn Elias Monson will have one interesting story to tell about the day he was born.
Baby Elias was expected to be born in a Duluth hospital, as many babies from the area are, but instead his parents had to make an unexpected stop at the Lake View Memorial Hospital in Two Harbors, where a baby hasn’t been born for more than half a decade.
Originally, Grand Marais residents Jeanne Smith and Kyle Monson planned to induce their son’s birth Feb. 7 and give birth in Duluth. That was the plan until Monday morning Jan. 30, when Smith woke up at 4:46 a.m. and was already in labor. Thus began the parents’ long, snowy drive from Grand Marais to Duluth.
After the couple passed one driver traveling “around 10 miles per hour” through Silver Bay, they realized they might not make it all the way to Duluth. The drive was anything but the casual, scenic trip down Highway 61. “I was panicking,” Smith said. “[Kyle] was not.”
“The contractions were about two to three minutes apart by that time,” Smith said. “So I called down to Duluth and asked if I should still try to make it. They said no and told us to go to the Two Harbors hospital.”
The new parents are glad they did and received “fantastic care.” After the couple arrived at the hospital between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m. Monday, six pound, seven ounce baby Elias greeted Two Harbors almost two hours later.
The newborn is the first baby to be born at the Two Harbors Lakeview Memorial Hospital in seven years. The last baby born there was also an emergency delivery in 2005. The hospital has not had a planned birth in its facilities since 2003, therefore most Two Harbors babies are born in Duluth. The couple said that the staff was almost as excited as they were. Proud new father Monson said it seemed everyone at the hospital wanted to be a part of the rare event.
“It was the biggest day of my life,” he said. “It seemed like it was a pretty big day for the staff too.”
Though birthing babies isn’t in the normal routine for Lake View Memorial Hospital, the couple said they were given great care. Elias was delivered by Dr. Linda Bergum, a family medicine and community health physician from Ely. Bergum said she has delivered about 1,000 during the 31 years she has practiced medicine.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better doctor,” Smith said.
Bergum said Smith was a lovely woman and she was happy to work with her. She said the Two Harbors hospital staff is “outstanding” and “well-trained” and pointed out that Lake View Memorial Hospital is a critical access hospital which means it can handle “anything that happens whether it’s a snowmobile through the lake or a baby being born.” She explained it’s a place where a doctor can “stabilize and treat” a patient and then send them onto a hospital that can handle the case from there, as in Smith’s situation.
Bergum noted that Smith’s patient room got very crowded later on. Many relatives from around the area came to visit, including new big sister 3-year-old Brianna Cecelia Smith.
Smith was later moved to St. Mary’s Hospital in Duluth. The family is now home in Grand Marais.
Article reprinted courtesy of Lake County News Chronicle and Catherine Hannula, who can be reached at channula@lcnewschronicle.com.
Leave a Reply