Detective Mel Maurice's Wednesday afternoon played out like a scene out of "Hawaii Five-0"
The NYPD aviation unit officer flew two miles offshore in a police chopper, rappeled down into a boat as it rocked in the surf, then finished things off with a high-stakes rescue.
And like any good action scene, there was a surprising twist. The woman was pregnant, and she had just gone into labor.
"I never thought I'd be helping a pregnant woman on a fishing boat," he said.
Maurice was one of several officers who helped bring a woman back ashore after her water broke aboard a chartered fishing boat Wednesday afternoon. She was able to get into a waiting ambulance without any injuries and was able to make it to a hospital to deliver the baby.
Maurice and the rest of the NYPD chopper crew began flying out to the boat off the coast of Queens after getting a distress call about a pregnant woman in distress.
The initial plan was to hoist the expectant mother to the chopper -- but the crew changed plans because they were worried about injuring the woman or her baby.
"Me and the pilot were able to hoist Mel through this four-foot hole onto the bow of the boat," said crew chief Craig Coogan.
When Maurice got down onto the boat, he said he took the mother's vitals and waited for a harbor unit boat to pull alongside. When it got there, he and other rescuers helped the family onto the rescue boat.
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"She was good," Maurice said of the mother. "She was pretty calm. This was pregnancy No. 8 for her so she's definitely a pro at it."
Chopper 4 footage caught responders helping the mother into an ambulance after the rescue boat made it ashore.
Maurice said that the NYPD is always prepared for the unexpected, like helping the expecting.
"It's what we do," he said. "It's who we are. We're police officers. We're here to help people."
