A baby girl was born on FDR Drive Tuesday morning, police said, as several detectives combined to help deliver her inside a car on the shoulder.
Her 39-year-old mother was on her way to the hospital just before 7:50 a.m. but the little girl, named Nicola, didn’t feel like waiting.
“There was a wonderful reason for this morning’s FDR traffic!” the NYPD tweeted. “Say hi to Nicola Wong, safely delivered by NYPD cops.”
Det. Michael Sharpe, part of the collision investigation squad, was on his way to traffic court when he got a call saying a woman was in labor on the busy highway “right now,” police said. But when he got to 20th Street, where the 911 dispatcher told him to go, she was nowhere to be seen.
Sharpe drove north, police said, and finally saw her gold Subaru Forrester parked on the shoulder near 47th Street. When he opened the passenger door, little Nicola’s head was already crowning.
He jumped into action and helped the woman give birth as he waited for more officers to help. Highway Unit officers then arrived to clear the baby’s airway. Emergency Services Unit Det. Robert Mirsield and his partner, Det. Joe Conway, cut the umbilical cord and assisted with liquid suction, police said.
They then flagged down an ambulance on the highway, which took mom and baby to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
“Happy Birthday Nicola W!” the department’s Special Operations Division tweeted. “7lbs 6oz.”
