DETROIT — Dearborn resident Rima Meroueh gave birth to son Mazen Hariri on Tuesday, Mar. 8 on the side of I-94, saying that the child wasn’t originally expected to be born until the following Sunday night according to various local news reports.

The 31-year-old Meroueh, a graduate student at Wayne State University, was on the way to the University of Michigan Health System when contractions forced her to head toward the nearest hospital instead.

But the baby couldn’t wait and her friend Rana Elmir, 28 of Dearborn, called 911. A dispatcher coached her through the delivery process, which they completed on the side of I-94 near I-96 in a 2010 Mazda.

The Detroit Fire Department and Michigan State Police arrived around 4:45 a.m. to find the women and new baby Mazen before the healthy boy was taken to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.