Baby girl born in ambulance doing fine

East Brunswick rescue
crew ecstatic about
witnessing the birth

BY VINCENT TODARO
Staff Writer

EAST BRUNSWICK — Often their role is to prevent people from leaving this world, but volunteers of the local first aid recently helped bring someone into the world.

The East Brunswick Rescue Squad received a call on Aug. 28 about a woman who might be going into labor. Sure enough, when the first aid crew arrived on the scene they discovered that the baby could wait no longer.

The baby girl was born at 5:41 a.m., not long after her mother, a 28-year-old New York woman, was placed in the ambulance. The baby was delivered by squad member Dennis Bruno, according to Mary Kerslake, a veteran squad member.

Bruno, coincidentally, had just begun nursing school.

The baby was born about one month early and weighed just 4.4 pounds, Kerslake said. Afterward, both mother and daughter were taken to St. Peter’s University Hospital, New Brunswick, where they were reported to be in good condition, according to the squad.

Kerslake said the baby was still in the hospital earlier this week and that the family did not yet wish to be identified or speak publicly about the matter.

According to the squad, it was 5 a.m. that Saturday morning when the EMT crew — Bruno, Dan Greenhaus, first-aider Igor Fogelman and cadet Ryan Korn — responded to the call to assist a woman who was pregnant.

The woman was in her eighth month of pregnancy, and the crew put her in the rescue squad ambulance, at which point the woman complained of pain and discomfort. The crew then realized the baby’s head was crowning and they were going to have to deliver the baby right there in the ambulance.

Bruno delivered the baby, while Greenhaus was the driver, Kerslake said. The cadet sat in the jump seat and Fogelman talked the mother through the ordeal.

Kerslake said the squad has delivered babies before, including one on the New Jersey Turnpike in 2001. She was captain of the squad at the time. However, this was the first time any of these responders delivered a baby, she said.

“Deliveries are very rare because of our proximity to three hospitals and most doctors’ cautious attitudes during a pregnant woman’s final trimester,” rescue squad Capt. Lisa Grande said. “They’re very happy calls for us, and we’re thrilled this crew got to experience it.”

Kerslake said the rescue members are, in fact, trained to perform deliveries.

“It’s all included in the EMT course,” she said, noting that members must be recertified every three years so they don’t forget things.

A delivery without complications is not as hard as some may think, she said.

“We carry OB kits that include a drape and stuff to cut the [umbilical] cord,” she said. “The baby normally is born face down and rotates its head as it comes out. You need to help hold the shoulder as it comes out.”

The squad will not disclose the location where the baby was born due to confidentiality issues.

Kerslake said she was disappointed she wasn’t there. In all her years on the squad, Kerslake has never delivered a baby.

“It’s so sad. I always used to ride on Fridays,” she said. “Once they had a delivery, but I was on vacation, and once I missed another because I took off to go to a party.”