KTVU 
 
 A San Jose woman was honored Wednesday for her heroic delivery of a child from its dying mother’s womb on a rural Texas highway last year. 
 
 Officials from the Texas Department of Public Safety traveled to the Bay Area to honor Iria Wolnick for her quick actions after her family – on the way to a funeral -- came upon an accident scene on rural Highway 77 in Kennedy County, Texas. 
 
 In the crash, an 18-year-old male, a 19-year-old female and a 2-year-old had been ejected from their vehicle. 
 
 “She (the 19-year-old female) kept asking – ‘Ma’am how’s my baby? How’s my baby?” Wolnick said recalling the day. “I thought she was asking about the toddler, but then I looked down and saw her stomach.” 
 
 There was large laceration on the woman’s stomach and an unborn child’s head and arm were sticking out. 
 
 Wolnick – who has four children of her own -- knew she had to deliver the child or it would die. 
 
 “Four kids later, you sort of have an idea what needs to happen,” she said. “Making sure the umbilical cord is tied, preventing blood from coming out…keeping the baby warm…All those sort of things.” 
 
 After delivering the miracle baby, Wolnick was able to obtain a heartbeat and heard the baby cry just prior to EMS arriving. 
 
 “The adrenaline just kicks in and you just spring into action or panic,” she said. “I sprung into action.” 
 
 What also has lingered in Wolnick’s mind is the fact that her family was on the way to her mother’s funeral when they came upon the accident scene. 
 
 “It has changed my life for good,” she said of the delivery. “The baby will be in my thoughts forever…You get a new perspective on life.” 
 
 While the 6-pound, 11-ounce baby girl survived, the mother died a short time later in the hospital from complications. 
 
 “I’ve gotten a couple texts from the father,” she said. “But I’ve wanted to give him time to mourn.” ||||| SAN JOSE -- Texas law-enforcement officials traveled to the South Bay on Wednesday to honor an "extremely heroic" San Jose woman who last year encountered a catastrophic car crash in south Texas and successfully delivered a baby girl from her dying mother. 
 
 Iria Wolnick, 36, received the Director's Award from the Texas Department of Public Safety during a ceremony at the California Highway Patrol's field office in San Jose. The department's award recipients are usually in-state, but in a rare instance, it sent representatives to California to ensure Wolnick was properly recognized. 
 
 "This is the first time I've ever done this," Texas DPS Lt. Jeremy Rowlands said on the far-reaching travel. "For this kind of act we recognize citizens no matter where they're from. This was extremely heroic, and without her actions that day we would have lost two lives instead of one." 
 
 Wolnick was traveling on Highway 77 in remote Kenedy County, Texas -- about 200 miles south of San Antonio and 50 miles north of the Mexican border -- just after midnight July 5 when she saw the aftermath of SUV that rolled over and caught fire, illuminating the dark sky. All three occupants -- a father and pregnant mother, and their 2-year-old daughter -- had been thrown out onto a field. 
 
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 The mother, 19-year-old Niser Saldana-Quilantan, asked Wolnick if her baby was OK, and that was when Wolnick spotted a laceration on the woman's abdomen, heard a baby's cries, and saw a head and tiny hand emerging from the wound. 
 
 "She kept saying, 'How's my baby? How's my baby?'" Wolnick said. "My reaction was to spring into action and do what I could." 
 
 Working off mostly instinct and some first-aid training, Wolnick said she delivered the 6 pound, 11 ounce baby, named Emma Lyn Anahi Ortega. A passing truck driver used a shoelace to tie off the umbilical cord. 
 
 Saldana-Quilantan was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, Rowlands said. The 19-year-old father and the 2-year-old girl survived without serious injury. Wolnick said she has occasionally texted with the family but has generally opted to give them space. 
 
 A mother of four, Wolnick said Wednesday that the episode was a "life-changing" experience but also demurred in saying her actions were what she would expect from any person in a position to help. 
 
 "If I was in that situation, I would want someone to do that for me," Wolnick said. 
 
 But Capt. Les Bishop, who oversees CHP operations in San Jose, said these kinds of acts are not nearly that common, which is why Wolnick stands out. 
 
 "We might expect that from EMS and law enforcement, but with limited training, this was a good measure of Mrs. Wolnick's humanity," Bishop said. 
 
 Wolnick already had a heavy heart that morning: She was en route to her mother's funeral in Brownsville, which she said gave the birth special meaning and a sense of spiritual balance. 
 
 "I was given the opportunity to bring life into the world in those conditions," she said. "It's not something that happens every day." 
 
 Contact Robert Salonga at 408-920-5002. Follow him at Twitter.com/robertsalonga.
– Iria Wolnick was on her way to her mother’s funeral when she ended up preventing another. The 36-year-old came upon a fiery crash on a highway in rural Texas after midnight last July 5, and her heroics were honored by Texas law enforcement yesterday morning. The San Jose woman found 19-year-old Niser Saldana-Quilantan in a field. She, along with her 2-year-old and the child's father, had been thrown from an SUV after it hit a tree, rolled over, and caught fire, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Saldana-Quilantan "kept asking 'Ma'am how’s my baby? How’s my baby?" Wolnick recounts, according to KTVU. "I thought she was asking about the toddler, but then I looked down and saw her stomach"—an unborn child's head and arm were protruding from a severe cut in it. A mother of four with only first aid training, Wolnick explains, "You sort of have an idea what needs to happen. Making sure the umbilical cord is tied, preventing blood from coming out… I sprung into action," assisted by a truck driver who used a shoelace on the umbilical cord. Saldana-Quilantan was pronounced dead when she arrived at the hospital, but the 6-pound, 11-ounce baby girl survived. “It has changed my life for good," Wolnick says. "The baby will be in my thoughts forever… You get a new perspective on life." The other passengers survived without serious injury.