Officers help with curbside delivery of Bethel Park baby
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Two Western Pennsylvania police officers dispatched to investigate a traffic accident ended up helping to deliver a baby girl.
Alan Freeman said he was driving his wife, Laurie, from their home in suburban Bethel Park to West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh early Saturday, but he soon realized that their second child wasn’t going to wait.
Spotting the Pittsburgh officers, who were investigating an unrelated minor crash, he pulled over to the side of the road and asked for their help.
“I told my husband he had to stop and get the policeman’s help, because she was coming and sure enough, there she came,” Laurie said.
Medics were called, but the baby wasn’t going to wait for them either. Alan said that even though the officers weren’t trained for childbirth, they didn’t hesitate to pitch in.
“One of them actually found me a blanket, sort of talked me though it and kept me calm and I caught the baby,” said Alan.
As soon as the baby appeared, Alan said, he got back behind the wheel and drove the remaining two miles to West Penn Hospital without waiting for an escort.
“At that point, with the baby sitting there on Laurie’s chest, I just wanted to get there as fast as I could,” he said.
Cmdr. RaShall Brackney identified the officers as Tanya Szuch and David McManus
Seven-pound, 3-ounce Cecily Kate Freeman and her mother were reported to be resting comfortably later Saturday- and her father is already thinking about the newborn’s future.
“When she wants what she wants, she will get it,” he said. “Yes, it has me very scared for whomever she winds up with as a partner.”