Suzie Harrison Don Fredriksen was born at...

Suzie Harrison

Don Fredriksen was born at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in

its inaugural year, 1952. Twenty years later, the stork brought

daughter Joy Martin to Hoag in 1972. Thirty years later, a third

generation family member, Noah Andrew Martin, also took his first

breath at the Newport Beach hospital on Dec. 15.

Not only is Hoag Hospital celebrating its 50th anniversary this

year -- so is Fredriksen’s family.

“They always told me I was one of the first born there,”

Fredriksen said. “I don’t know exactly when the first one was, but

all my friends are now turning 50, and none were born at Hoag.”

When Hoag opened on Sept. 12, 1952, it had 72 beds, 68 staff

physicians and 60 employees. Today, it has 409 hospital beds, a

medical staff of more than 800 and nearly 3,000 employees.

Fredriksen said that when he was growing up in Costa Mesa, Hoag

was a single story, a little place.

“My dad was cop in Newport,” Fredriksen said. “I would ride with

him, and we would go to the cafeteria at Hoag for lunch. I ate there

a lot growing up.”

Little did he know that later in life, he would be back again.

“When I was upstairs looking from the labor room when Joy was

born, I looked down from that floor and saw the floor I was born on,”

Fredriksen said. “I can’t recognize a lot because there has been so

much change, but it’s been very comforting having Joy and Noah born

there, too.”

Martin couldn’t believe that she ended up in the labor room next

to her best friend from middle school.

“We didn’t know that each other was there until our moms ran into

each other in the hall,” Martin said. “Coincidentally, she was

overdue and I was early. We shared the same recovery room.”

The nurses who helped with Noah Martin’s birth thought it was neat

that three generations were born at the hospital.

“A couple months ago, I was doing work on a house for someone my

mother’s age,” Fredriksen said. “She remembered me -- she shared a

room with my mother for a few days when I was born.”