Las Vegas Shooting Survivor Gives Birth to Baby She Credits with Saving Her Life

A pregnant woman who survived the deadly Las Vegas shooting last year welcomed a baby girl last month, whom she credits with saving her life, along with the lives of her family members, on that October night.

Kami Biorkman and her husband, Elijah, learned some exciting news the morning they were to travel from their Yucaipa, California home to Las Vegas for the Route 91 Harvest Festival: Biorkman was pregnant. They were initially surprised by the news after Biorkman experienced an ectopic pregnancy the year before, when her egg fertilized outside of her uterus. The condition resulted in one of her fallopian tubes being removed.

“I didn’t actually believe it at first. I lost the pregnancy and one of my tubes, so we tried for a year to get pregnant, so when we finally found out we were pregnant, I wasn’t sure, maybe it was a false positive?” the 25-year-old told PEOPLE. “I never thought I would lose a pregnancy, so I expected the unexpected, and I was nervous about losing this one, too.”

With plans to repeat the test once they were back from the festival and to stay away from alcohol and anything else that could hurt their chances of holding onto the baby at the festival, Biorkman and Elijah set off to meet her parents 200 miles away in Las Vegas.

As they stood close to the stage during Jason Aldean’s set on the last night of the festival, Biorkman was concerned for her baby as she and her family were surrounded by smoke from cigars and marijuana. She and her family moved farther back in the crowd for some fresher air.

Like many of the festival-goers, Biorkman said she didn’t realize the popping sounds were gunshots, and instead wondered where the fireworks were coming from.

“At first, I didn’t realize it was bullets that were going off. I had no idea they were gunshots,” Biorkman recalled. “I thought they were fireworks. I was looking around to see where the noise was coming from and people were already running towards us, and my dad turned around and said, ‘Get up and run!’ “

Stephen Paddock, a gambler and real estate businessman, had broken through the window of his 32nd floor Mandalay Bay hotel suite and was firing bullets from high-powered weapons into the crowd of more than 22,000.

Biorkman and her family took cover behind a collection of lockers and tried to come up with an escape plan as Paddock, 64, fired more than 1,000 rounds during a span of 10 minutes. Ultimately, he killed 58 and injured more than 500 people before shooting himself in the mouth.

“We took cover at the lockers because the bullets were still spraying, and everyone’s upset and crying and people are laying on the floor,” Biorkman said. “When we realized it was gunshots, I honestly couldn’t believe it was happening again — my first pregnancy didn’t end the way we wanted it to, and I was terrified it was happening again, it was repeating the cycle that I was going to lose another baby.”

The family was able to make it unharmed to their truck, with two other couples jumping into the vehicle as they rushed to safety.

Biorkman said she and Elijah focused solely on her pregnancy after the traumatic event, though she said she still jumps when she hears loud noises.

Nine months after the shooting, Biorkman gave birth to Rosalie on June 14 and credits her with saving the lives of her family even before she was born.

“If I wasn’t pregnant with her, we would have stayed up front and hung out with the rowdiness,” Biorkman says. “If we had not moved back, I’m not sure we would have walked away from that concert.”

She said the arrival of Rosalie has helped her and her family move on from that terrifying night.

“She’s here, and looking at her now, it’s a wonder that we ever lived without her. I’m just in that new parent awe,” Biorkman adds. “It’s amazing, and now that she is here in our arms, we feel like we can finally close that chapter on what happened in Vegas.”