Hospital News

2006 Press Releases

State trooper delivers baby of Lakewood woman in his truck.

DEAL, NJ, December 14, 2006 - Unable to get to the hospital in time, a New Jersey state trooper delivered a baby boy on the side of a road Wednesday morning.

Levi and Rivka Barash, the Lakewood parents, were trying to get to Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch when Rivka Barash began to deliver the baby on the side of Route 18 northbound in Ocean Township, according to State Police Sgt. Jeanne Hengemuhle.

At 9:03 a.m. near the Deal Road exit, Levi Barash stopped the family car and waved down state Trooper Anthony Palermo, who was on patrol in a marked Dodge Durango.

Palermo put the mother in the backseat of his sport-utility vehicle and headed for Monmouth Medical Center as fast as he safely could.

"I advised the husband to take his time and meet us at the hospital," Palermo said. "I put on the overhead light and used the siren, made it off onto Deal Road, then went straight through Ocean Township."

The trooper made it to Route 71 and Phillips Avenue when the baby began to crown, Palermo said.

"She was amazing, she was delivering the baby and talking on her cell phone to the father," Palermo said. "She was tough. She did a great job."

Realizing they would not get to the hospital in time, the trooper stopped the car at the corner then proceeded to deliver the baby without any real equipment to assist him — he didn't even have anything to cut the umbilical cord.

"This doesn't happen every day," Palermo said.

Hengemuhle added: "The baby began to breathe and cry, he was placed on his mother's chest (and Palermo) arrived at Monmouth Medical Center shortly thereafter where emergency staff were waiting."

Palermo said the State Police are trained for almost every contingency, including the birth of a baby, but it's not something he has encountered in his 19 years as a state trooper.

"I have five children of my own," Palermo said, adding that he was present at the birth of his own children. "I felt if it came down to delivering the baby, it wasn't going to be a problem."

A Monmouth Medical Center spokesperson was not available for comment, and a nursing supervisor there said she would not disturb a new mother.

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