Crime & Safety

Woman Gives Birth on Taconic Parkway

A Westchester County police lieutenant helped deliver the baby on the side of the parkway in Yorktown Monday morning.

By Plamena Pesheva

What started out as a typical day turned out to be an extraordinary one for a new mother of a baby girl, a cab driver and a police officer on his way to work.

Lt. James Luciano, of the Westchester County Police Department, was on his way to work Monday morning when he saw a Lincoln Livery vehicle had pulled over with the hazards on and the front passenger car door open. The car had stopped on the Taconic State Parkway southbound, just north of exit for the Bear Mountain Extension. 

Luciano, a 25-year veteran who was wearing his uniform, pulled over to make sure everyone was OK, thinking the car might have broken down.

He was in for a big surprise.

"The last thing on my mind was that I would find a woman ready to give birth imminently," Lt. Luciano told Patch. 

When he got to her, the 36-year-old woman was laying on her side and was asking for help. The cab driver was on the phone to alert authorities. Luciano immediately got back to his unmarked vehicle to get in touch with his unit and request paramedics. 

Lt. Luciano got out the basic life support kit out of his truck and put on his gloves. As he was getting back to the woman in labor, he saw the cab driver waving his hands as if to say "hurry up." The woman kept turning on her side and Lt. Luciano reassured her she would be OK. 

"[Then] the baby came out," Lt. Luciano said. 

He wrapped the new born baby girl in sterile dressing and cleaned her head and face. The time of birth—Aug. 5, 2013 at 9:06 a.m. 

"The baby started crying and I put her on her mother's chest," Lt. Luciano told Patch.

This is the first time Lt. Luciano had to deliver a baby during his 25-year-long career as a police officer. He had previously helped deliver a baby while working as an EMT 27 years ago, but he said at that time he knew he would be helping a woman in labor and had the proper equipment. 

He described the baby to appear to be in full term and not have any complications. The new mother and her baby were transported to the Hudson Valley Hospital Center with the help of Lake Mohegan Fire Department paramedics.

"It was one of the best feelings I've had in my tenure as a police officer—assist to bring a life to the world," said Lt. Luciano, a father of two children. "Just happy to help, mom did all the work."


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