Penn Station isn't known for its early arrivals, but little Caesar Boothe may change all that.
The 7-pound boy came into the world Wednesday right in the middle of the bustling Amtrak concourse as commuters gathered to welcome him with cheers.
"I didn't care who was there, who was watching me," mom Marie Boothe, 29, said hours after she delivered her son on the floor of the waiting area at 7:18 a.m.
"I was thinking, 'Just get the baby out!'"
Lucky for Caesar and his folks, a phalanx of anti-terror cops were in the station - although this wasn't quite the emergency they expected.
"Oh my God, the baby is crowning," Officer Deborah Garbutt recalled saying as she knelt to grab the bouncing newborn. "It took two minutes, if not less."
The ordeal started about 4 a.m., when Boothe woke up in labor at her home in East Orange, N.J.
Joined by husband Jonathan Boothe, 26, and 1-year-old son Samson, she hopped on a train about 6:30 a.m. to get to North Central Bronx Hospital, where they planned to give birth.
But when they pulled into Penn Station, her pain was too strong, her water broke and the baby was ready to come out.
"Forget the ambulance. Forget everything else. I'll do it right here," Boothe said she told her husband.
Jonathan Boothe went looking for assistance and found Garbutt and her fellow NYPD Officers Adrianna Medina and Ernest Huang, who were assigned to anti-terrorism patrol. Officer Karen Schrof of Amtrak police quickly joined them.
While Garbutt and other officers preformed the delivery in the jam-packed station, a throng of curious commuters stopped and looked, some snapping pictures with cell phone cameras.
Yells of "Congratulations!" and "It's a boy!" erupted after Caesar Penn Boothe arrived.
"I was in shock, but I did the best I could," said Garbutt, a 16-year veteran who has two boys. "It was a great experience."
Boothe said she awoke in labor some three hours earlier. At an afternoon reunion at Bellevue Hospital, the young couple heaped praise on the cops.
"They did a tremendous job," said Jonathan Boothe.
10 years ago
4 comments:
cuh-ray-zee.
I totally watched that on the news today. Nuts!
you should post the comment about the angry family.. that's some good drama.
i love this story. and i actually like the name penn. funny. and i concur with brooke's comment. :)
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