The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Police officer helps deliver baby in car
Richmond Heights police officer Jonathan Ross’ overnight shift on Nov. 11 took an unexpected turn when he was summoned to help deliver a baby in the passenger seat of a car.
Ross said he was running radar in his cruiser around 1:30 a.m. in a church parking lot on Richmond Road. He said it had been a quiet night, but that changed when he noticed a car pull into the church’s driveway and back out onto the main road.
Ross said he wondered what the driver was doing, but quickly realized the situation was urgent when the driver jumped out and started flagging him down.
Ross explained the man was frantic — waving his hands and yelling that the woman in his passenger seat was giving birth.
“I just thought, ‘oh man, here we go,’ ” he said.
Ross said the baby was halfway delivered by the time he got to the vehicle. He was concerned because it looked like the infant was not breathing, but he continued to encourage the mother while preparing to start chest compressions if needed.
“I told her, ‘you’ve just got to get through this and keep pushing,’ ” Ross said.
He said he’d been trained for emergency situations with babies, such as performing CPR or the Heimlich maneuver — but certainly not how to deliver one.
“I was just trying to keep everyone calm,” he said.
Paramedics had been called to the scene, Ross said, but the birth happened too quickly and the
baby was delivered before any other help arrived.
Ross said his worries lessened when the baby started to cry, indicating he was breathing.
“Once we heard that cry it was such a relief...I just set him on his mom and it’s like he knew,” he said.
Paramedics and other police officers arrived shortly after, and the new mom and baby were transported to a hospital. Ross said he was not aware of their current status, but he believed that everyone involved would be OK.