First Lady Niki recounts how her newborn was saved during Hurricane Ian

A mother and her four-month-old baby were rescued from their home during Hurricane Ian.

Niki Escobar, also known as First Lady Niki, is a radio DJ for Fly 98.5, a product of the Fort Myers Broadcast Center, and wanted to tell the story of how she and her newborn were saved.

It was a scary couple of days for Escobar as she did everything she could to make sure her baby was safe during the storm.

On a normal morning, Escobar is at the station, playing music, sharing information, and taking care of her listeners. When she goes home, she takes care of her family.

“This little dude is almost five months, and he’s given us more excitement than any of them combined, which is how we are living life. So he is just something special,” said Escobar.

Escobar’s son Jireh was born premature, with multiple holes in his heart, and with down syndrome.

“My baby, he had had some issues leading up to Ian. He had a doctor’s appointment, we took him on Sunday because he was having some problems. We took him that Sunday, then the following Tuesday, he was to have a doctor’s appointment, but, in the midst of everything going on, AKA Ian, that got canceled. So we never made it to the doctor,” Escobar said.

By the time Ian’s winds tore through the Dunbar community where Escobar lives, Jireh’s health declined.

“We hear things falling and moving and plywood trying to come off our windows and stuff like that. So with him, trying to keep him comfortable because of the congestion and he’s coughing, and he had moments that he felt like he couldn’t breathe, and his chest was squeezing down what felt like flat as a pancake,” said Escobar.

Escobar sat down, processed the situation, and cried out to God.

“Laying my hands on his chest and praying, like God just let us make it through this moment. Let us make it through until we can get help.”

She called 911 during the height of the storm, and hours later, EMS picked Escobar and Jireh up and took them to Health Park.

“EMS, they realized his oxygen levels were so low, like 92, something like that, so really low for a little baby of that size. He was in pretty bad shape,” said Escobar.

Escobar and Jireh spent nearly 24 hours at Health Park, where there was no food or water.

“Even with the lack, the care, I didn’t feel there was a lack of care or inability for them to completely do their job.”

The staff at Health Park did what they could for Jireh with what they had, but with storm damage, the hospital had to be evacuated. Escobar and Jireh were flown to Johns Hopkins in St Petersburg.

“In a helicopter, yeah. I imagined the first time in a helicopter would be romantic with my husband watching the sun come up, but not quite. It was with my son, the other guy that steals my heart.”

Doctors diagnosed Jireh with RSV, or Respiratory syncytial virus, which causes an upper respiratory infection and can be deadly.

It wasn’t for little Jireh, though. After six days, he got to go home.