A Brooklyn woman got the livery cab ride of her life on Wednesday when her baby decided not to wait for the hospital and instead appeared at 51st Street and Seventh Avenue. Even Sweeney called a cab from Arecibo at 6 p.m., and when she got in, "I was far enough in labor that I was like 'Please lock the doors,' because I knew I was going to be stomping on them." The next thing she, her partner Inez Murray and cabbie Juan Hernandez knew, her water broke. Hernandez said, "She started screaming. I told her, 'If it has to happen here, just push!'"
Murray said, "She pushed one big push, and his head came out like a cork. And whatever happens to your lungs, he just gasped and I thought, 'At least he's breathing.'" Hernandez had called 911 and shortly after pulling over at 51st and 7th, WCBS 2 reports that "six police cars and an ambulance from New York Presbyterian were at the scene, along with a crowd of onlookers. EMT workers entered the cab, cut the baby’s cord and sent the two moms on their way to Roosevelt Hospital."
According to the Daily News, Murray said, "When they lifted her onto the stretcher, everyone broke out in applause. It was so New York." The couple, who already have a four-year-old daughter, named the baby Finn; Sweeney said, "He is definitely going to be an adventurer and a New York man. Cops and EMTs were his first friends."
And so was Hernandez! The Post says he didn't charge them for the ride and even followed them to the hospital to give them their belongings; the cabbie said, "The cleanup took a while. But that was no big deal."
