‘Just got off of a very delayed LIRR train,” NYPD Det. Martin Green posted on his Facebook page when his Long Island Rail Road train arrived at Penn Station on Sept. 28. “There was a medical emergency in the car ahead of mine. Not a regular medical emergency.”
Train personnel had asked over the loudspeaker whether there were any medical personnel on board. Green, a 16-year NYPD veteran assigned to the Citywide Traffic Task Force auxiliary unit, saw conductors looking at him through the window of the next car.
They knew he was an officer because they had just checked his pass. He stood up and walked toward them. One of them explained that a pregnant woman had just passed out.
Green approached the woman and with the help of a passenger, was able to wake her. He held her hand as the woman — later identified as W.A. Lattibeaudiere of Long Island — began to panic.
“My job at that point was to calm her down, get some medical history, ensure that an ambulance was ordered for the next available stop, and contact a family member,” Green’s post read. “Seems like a lot to do, doesn’t it? And all of it had to be done within seconds.”
He asked her what she was going to name her child. She asked him what his name was. “I told her, ‘Martin.’ She then said, ‘Martin it is.’ I was honored.”
Then, while he held Lattibeaudiere’s hand she began to shake and sweat. Green, who is white, had Lattibeaudiere, who is black, maintain eye contact with him. It calmed her down and slowed her heart rate until the EMTs arrived and put her in an ambulance.
Afterward, an African-American man asked Green whether he was a police officer. “I said yes. He said, ‘You do care about us.’ I told him that we care, we have always cared, and we will always care. That color makes no difference. It’s all about helping others,” Green posted.
According to an MTA spokesman, Lattibeaudiere was about 20 weeks pregnant when she was taken to the hospital.
Green says he spoke with her mother, who told him her daughter was now at home and the baby was OK. Green adds that Lattibeaudiere’s relatives from all across the country have called to thank him.
The moral of the story, Green wrote on his post: “We as police officers are always on duty. Our training helps save lives. We care about any and all. All lives matter to us.”
