Baby Delivered in Ambulance On Way To Hospital

Two Lawrence Township emergency medical technicians teamed up this morning (July 23) to deliver a baby in the back of their ambulance after it became clear they were not going to be able to get the mother-to-be to the hospital in time.

The “special delivery” took place in the parking lot of Quaker Bridge Mall, just minutes after the ambulance crew picked up their patient at the Avalon Run apartment complex.

“From crowning to delivering the baby, the whole process took two minutes,” EMT DeLorfette “Dee” Clark said during an interview this afternoon. “We evaluated the baby just to make sure he was fine. Once we determined that mom and the baby were good, off to the hospital we went with a police escort.”

Both the newborn and his 26-year-old mother were said to be doing well at Capital Health System’s hospital in Hopewell.

“He was absolutely a beautiful, healthy baby boy,” Clark said.

It was shortly after 10 a.m. when Lawrence Township police and Lawrence Township Emergency Medical Service EMTs Clark and Joseph Horn were dispatched to an address on Town Court North in the Avalon Run complex for a “maternity.”

“We were thinking it was just someone having early contractions. Just a normal run – you go in, get them and take them to the hospital,” said Clark, who has been an emergency medical technician for the past 20 years.

“As we were walking up the steps, we heard her screaming. After doing this so many times, you know that scream means, ‘This baby is coming now.” We got in there, assessed the situation. It was her third kid. Her water had already broken, so you knew the baby was coming quick. So everything was kind of, ‘Let’s move real fast and try to get her to the hospital.’”

Aided by police Sgt. Michael Yeh and Officer Hector Nieves, Clark and Horn got the pregnant woman into the ambulance and started for the hospital. Also along for the ride was the expectant father.

“We made it to the front of the mall when we had to pull over to deliver right there. The baby was coming. He decided he was ready,” Clark said.

Horn, who has also been an EMT for two decades, jumped out of the driver’s seat and into the back of the ambulance to help Clark with the delivery.

While the father-to-be acted as an interpreter and offered “morale support” by holding the woman’s hand, the two veteran EMTs delivered the baby.

It was something they have both done before.

Including today’s birth, Clark has helped to deliver 21 babies during his 20 years riding ambulances in Lawrence, Trenton and Ewing. .

For Horn, who once helped deliver twins, today’s was the fifth birth with which he has assisted.    

After suctioning the baby’s airway clear, clamping and cutting the umbilical cord, and wrapping the newborn in a blanket, the EMTs resumed their journey and delivered the family to the hospital.

“It feels good to escort someone into the world,” said Horn, 40, a Perth Amboy resident whose career in emergency medical services began when he joined the local volunteer first aid squad in Sayreville after graduating high school. Prior to joining Lawrence EMS, he worked as an EMT in Perth Amboy, Carteret and Linden.

Clark, 43, grew up in Trenton and got into EMS through a friend who convinced him to volunteer with the former 11th Zone Rescue Squad. “For some reason, it was nature when I started doing it. I got into it and took more and more classes. It really felt good to give back to my community.”

In addition to working in Lawrence, Clark currently serves as chief of Trenton Emergency Medical Service.

“Calls like this are why I still do the job 20 years later,” Clark said. “You get a great appreciation when your services are actually needed. When you get a call like this, where they absolutely needed emergency medical care, it just makes the job that much more rewarding.”

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