"I think I'm gonna be an uncle," said Essex County, N.J. Sheriff's Deputy Joseph Stivalo after he rescued a pregnant mom in labor whose car was stuck in Wednesday's Blizzard.
Carla Henriques, 27, and her twin sons are doing fine now at St. Barnabas Hospital in Livingston, N.J. but much of the credit has to go to Deputy Stivalo, who now considers himself an honorary uncle.
"That's one of the things we do," said Essex Sheriff Armando Fontoura, describing how, among other things, deputies are trained to help deliver babies.
Carla, her husband Miguel Henriques, their 6-year-old son, and her mother-in-law were all driving from Kearny to St. Barnabas Hospital when their car got stuck going up a hill in the snow in West Orange.
Deputy Stivalo, assigned to the Office of Emergency Management, was out on patrol "looking for people who were distressed," said Sheriff Fontoura, when he came across the stranded Henriques car.
When he realized Carla was in labor, Stivalo put everyone but her husband into his SUV, which was also equipped with a snow plow in front, and headed off to the hospital. Miguel Henriques stayed behind to watch the car.
There, the twin boys were delivered by hospital staff.
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"He's not the only one we came across that was stuck," said Sheriff Fontoura.
But on this day, Deputy Stivalo was the only one who went to the rescue of four people, and ended up saving six.
