Two New Jersey state troopers became de facto doctors this week when they helped deliver a baby girl on the side of a freeway — and the whole thing was captured on dash cam video.
“We walk through the doors every day not knowing what to expect. I definitely didn’t expect to be delivering a baby,” Trooper Alex Muro said.
Muro and his partner Arnaldo Mateo were on patrol at about 4 p.m. Monday when they got a call about a woman in labor pulled over on the Garden State Parkway in Hillside.
“She was screaming. She was in labor. She was in a little bit of pain,” Muro said. “She was crowning. The baby was already coming out.”
The two troopers jumped into action. It was 15 degrees outside and they had no medical equipment other than surgical gloves, but minutes later baby Rachel was born.
“I saw a jacket on the floor. We just kind of instinctively grabbed it, wrapped it around the baby, just to make sure she was warm,” Muro said.
The couple, who did not want to be identified, was coming from Lakewood, New Jersey, and was still 30 minutes away from the hospital when the mom began to give birth.
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Both troopers have children and said they’ve seen babies be born before. But they never expected to be the ones delivering a baby, especially not on the shoulder of the Garden State Parkway.
“It was just one of those moments where we had to respond and we did our jobs,” Mateo said.
The troopers have yet to formally meet Rachel, but they’re planning to set something up, so they can officially welcome her into the world.
