Blasted on B’klyn street Polish conductor Penderecki, 86, dies
No EMTs, no prob; cops deliver
WARSAW, Poland — Krzysztof Penderecki, an award-winning conductor and one of the world's most popular contemporary classical music composers whose works have featured in Hollywood films like “The Shining” and “Shutter Island,” died Sunday. He was 86.
In a statement emailed to The Associated Press, the Ludwig van Beethoven Association said Penderecki had a “long and serious illness.” He died at his Krakow home, the association said.
The statement called Penderecki as “Great Pole.”
As the city's health care workers continue to fight the rapid spread of coronavirus outbreak and with ambulances in short supply, two of New York's finest stepped up Sunday to help a Bronx woman deliver a baby — with no time to get to the hospital.
Officers Nicholas Torrisi and Joseph Feger of the 47th Precinct were just over an hour into their shift when a 911 call came in of a woman in labor in her E. 227th St. apartment near Barnes Ave.
When the officers arrived, the woman was writhing in pain and unable to stand.
“We requested an ambulance to the location. But basically, we couldn't get an estimated time of arrival,” Torrisi told the Daily News. “They had a backlog from everything that's going right now, the whole coronavirus thing. There were no ambulances available at the time.”
With no time to spare, the officers were prepared to bring the woman to the hospital themselves but she didn't think she'd make it.
“She thinks it's happening right now,” Torrisi said. “Me and my partner got on either side of her, holding her hands, and coaching her through it and trying to work with her.”
But when the woman's friend said, “The head's coming out!” Torrisi switched gears — asking the friend to hold her hand, with Feger holding the other — while he got ready to deliver the baby.
“I was probably the most nervous person in the room. The mom was doing really well,” Feger, 29, said.
Less than 15 minutes after they'd responded to the call, baby Ariah was ready to greet the world.
The mother “gave a few pushes, the head of the baby came out,” Torrisi said. “When the head came out, the umbilical cord was actually around the child's neck, and I was moving the child to get the cord from around the neck.
“At that point, I had the baby in my hands and I said, ‘Oh, look. You got a beautiful baby girl.'”
Torrisi and Feger accompanied mother and child to North Central Bronx Hospital, where she's expected to stay until Tuesday.
“I've never delivered a baby before in my life,” said Torrisi, 27. “I was, like, ecstatic. I've never felt anything like that in my life, holding a baby that was just born. It's kind of indescribable.”