Blackhawks fan stays to watch playoff game despite going into labor
It’s no secret that there are some diehard female NHL fans out there, but one Chicago woman may have earned the title as the most diehard when she went into labor at a playoff game and stayed at the game until it ended before heading to the hospital.
That’s right, Blackhawks fan Donna Lebano said she went into labor in the second period of the Blackhawks’ Game 5 win over the Wild last Thursday and refused to leave the game early. She even stuck around for the post-game ceremony to see the Blackhawks receive their stars of the game.
After Marian Hossa, who scored twice in the 5-1 Chicago win, received first star of the game honors, Lebano and her three sisters (who were at the game with her) headed to the hospital, where they arrived “in the nick of time” before Lebano gave birth to a 6-pound, 5-ounce baby boy. Lebano and her husband Charles named the newborn Owen Michael Lebano but gave him the nickname “Hossa” in honor of Donna’s father’s favorite player and Hossa’s game that night.
“We were really thinking about [naming him after a Blackhawk’s player] but we want him to be the first Owen Michael on the Blackhawks ever, and so we’re sticking with a little bit of a nickname, just “Hossa”, because my dad loved Marian Hossa,” Lebano said from her hospital bed in a video interview with a local news station.
Lebano said the game was supposed to be a last “girl’s night out” type of evening with her sisters while her husband stayed home with the couple’s older child as Lebano was not due for another month. While little Owen’s birth was a bit dramatic, both mom and baby are healthy and ready to watch the Blackhawks take on the Detroit Red Wings in the next round of the playoffs.
