NYPD detectives race woman in labor through rush hour NYC traffic
NEW YORK (WABC) -- A pair of police detectives were able to push through rush hour traffic to get a woman in advanced labor to the hospital, just in time.
"That train was coming," a detective said.
Normally, police with lights and sirens pull people over, but in this case, it was parents who pulled over the police to scream that their daughter was in labor in the backseat and needed to get to the hospital.
But traffic was nuts at 5 p.m. on April 15 and the hospital was about an hour away.
"The father flagged us down in bumper-to-bumper on the Gowanus," said Detective Daniel Martinez, NYPD CrimeStoppers.
"They were definitely honking and waving out the window trying to get our attention," said Detective Destiny Davilla, NYPD CrimeStoppers.
The parents screamed that their daughter had a high-risk pregnancy.
"Thought about my wife, she had a high-risk pregnancy so I went into first responder mode," Martinez said.
Martinez's son Max Theodore is now a healthy 9 month old, so the detective knew this was priority one.
So the police said, go ahead, go behind us, we'll put on lights and sirens and get you to the hospital!
"And I wanted to make sure we were going to the right hospital!" Martinez said.
They made it to the Upper East Side, to Cornell. Mom and her parents behind them in about 15 minutes.
Detective Davilla stresses they never sped, just shaved off time.
"Got there in about 15 to 20 minutes," she said.
How are mom and baby?
"We have been updated that mom and baby are healthy and doing very well," the detective said.
That's because these detectives knew labor does not wait, that train was coming!
"For sure! CHOO CHOO!"
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