Dispatcher helps coach couple through birth along highway

A baby boy was safely delivered along Nesconset Highway on Wednesday morning thanks to a Suffolk County Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services dispatcher, who guided the expectant couple through labor.

A man called 911 at about 9:53 a.m. from the side of the road in East Setauket saying his wife, who was 36 weeks pregnant, was about to have a baby in their Dodge Caravan as they drove to the hospital.

Dispatcher Joseph Pucci answered the call and gave the man instructions to deliver the baby, a boy born at 9:56 a.m. in the 3900 block of Nesconset Highway.

Pucci, who has been training with FRES for about five months, kept the couple on the line and told the father to check the baby’s breathing, keep him warm, and tie off the umbilical cord with a shoelace. The baby is the couple’s fourth child.

Suffolk County police and the Setauket Fire Department arrived a short time later and mother and child, both of whom appeared healthy, were taken to Stony Brook University Hospital.