Fast-arriving LI babies and the emergency responders who welcomed them into the world

Few things are the subjects of as much planning as the birth of a child. From painting the nursery to picking a name to packing the "go" bag, expectant parents think of little else but being ready when the time comes.

Sometimes, however, the little bundles of joy seem to have plans of their own, and they don't always sync up with those made by the grown-ups. When labor takes minutes instead of hours and the baby arrives before Mom can get to the hospital, it falls to emergency responders to greet the new arrival.

That's happened dozens of times over the years on Long Island, with Newsday and other local media recounting births at home and on the sides of just about every parkway, expressway and highway in the area. If you've ever wondered what happened to some of those newborns, keep reading to find out.

But he's not a couch potato

Doreen Vaccaro never forgot how police and EMTs from the Nassau County Police Department delivered her son, Andrew, on June 29, 1993. The baby was four days past his due date. When the time came before dawn, it came quickly; Vaccaro realized she wouldn't make it to North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset in time.

Police were called and responded within minutes to the family's home in Franklin Square. Andrew was born on the couch, delivered by then-patrolman Thomas Flynn and ambulance medical technician Michael Romano, now deceased.

This past summer, Vaccaro, 53, arranged a surprise gift for her son's 21st birthday: lunch with now-Sgt. Flynn.

"I wanted to do something different and nice," Vaccaro said, so a meeting was set up at Nassau County District Court in Hempstead. "The officer [Flynn] met us at the door. He said something like, 'You must wonder why you're here.' Andrew said, 'I think I know now.' "

It didn't take him long to connect the face to some of the newspaper articles his mother had saved marking his entry into the world.

"It was really cool to meet him and talk to him," Andrew said. "I think the best part about it was that when I was talking to him, he was so interested in my life and everything I was doing, 21 years after he delivered me."

Flynn said he was glad to be remembered and was touched by the opportunity to meet Andrew, a senior at Binghamton University majoring in political science.

"It was nice of them to think of me," he said. "They really have a great kid."

In some ways, Andrew's eagerness to be born is reflective of his personality.

"He's a very goal-driven person," his mother said. "He was an easy baby, actually. How he was born is how he lives his life — he's an early riser and a go-getter."

The reunion seemed destined, though, by a card Flynn sent to the family, which now lives in Lake Grove, when Andrew turned 1. Vaccaro brought it with her, and it read:

"Let's do it again sometime — just not at 4 in the morning."

Out-of-hospital births in the United States are extremely rare — fewer than 2 percent of the nation's 3.9 million annual births — according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Neither the CDC nor the state Health Department keeps track of how many of those are planned home births and how many are emergencies, but North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, which covers most of Long Island, sees only a few emergency births each year, officials said.

"We probably see it once every three or four months," said Dr. Adiel Fleischer, executive director of obstetrics and gynecology at North Shore-LIJ, whose hospitals deliver nearly 7,000 babies a year.

On such occasions, police are often the first to respond. Flynn recalled the sudden urgency during an otherwise quiet overnight shift.

"To get that call at 4 o'clock in the morning is certainly an eye-opener," he said. "Any kind of call with childbirth gets my heart racing."

A call she'll never forget

Sgt. Colleen Cooney knows the feeling. She's a public information officer in the commissioner's office at the Suffolk County Police Department, but for many of her 23 years with the department, she was a patrol officer. She has assisted four emergency births.

The mother of three vividly recalls the first time she responded to an unplanned home birth.

"It's very exciting for a person like me, who is there as a first responder, to be involved in that experience," Cooney said. "We tried to remain professional and calm everyone down. But what I wasn't prepared for was the vocalizing of the woman giving birth, when you walk in and hear someone screaming. The father was like a second patient for us, because this was not what they planned. It's not what anyone plans.

"We mainly pray that there are no complications," she added. "Your mind the whole time is thinking, 'Please let this baby breathe. Please let everything be OK once the baby is born.' "

Everything was OK and Cooney called in three words: It's a boy.

"And then you could hear all the other cops clicking their radios as if they were applauding," Cooney said. "It was almost like I was given a gift, because I was included in that very special, very intimate moment."

As stressful as it may be to face giving birth at home, it's even worse out on the road, at rush hour on a winter morning.

Regina Daniels-Jacoff, 36, was at home in Farmingdale on Feb. 10. Her husband, Andrew Jacoff, 39, was at work; the couple are correction officers at Rikers Island.

Just a week before, Daniels-Jacoff's doctor said she seemed to have plenty of time; she was only in her 37th week. But daughter Camille, 7, had been an early arrival. "We barely made it with her, too," Daniels-Jacoff recalled with a laugh.

The contractions began around 7:30 a.m. and were soon coming quickly. Andrew's father, Edward Jacoff, of Massapequa Park, rushed to the house. Camille went to a neighbor's house and Daniels- Jacoff and her father-in-law set out for South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside.

They were soon caught in traffic on Sunrise Highway, and it became clear they wouldn't reach the delivery room in time. Daniels-Jacoff told her father-in-law he would need to call an ambulance. " 'I'm not going to make it, he's on his way,' " she said she told him.

The ambulance soon arrived just before "The Bellmores Welcome You" sign on Sunrise, and Nassau County Police ambulance medical technicians Matthew Field and John Episcopo rushed her inside.

"As soon as they put me in the ambulance and got my clothes off, he just came flying out," Daniels-Jacoff said. Baby Aaron arrived at 9:38 a.m. He will soon be 8 months old, and his mom reports that he "already knows what he wants. Since he was born fast, he does do things fast — he's already full-on crawling. He's moving so fast; it's hard to see him growing up so soon."

Daniels-Jacoff said her son loves people and smiles at everybody, but like his birth, waiting doesn't come easy to him. "He's very impatient," Daniels-Jacoff said. "If he sees his bottle, he's got to have it right now."

From shopping to birthing

Even couples who have experienced childbirth many times are sometimes caught by surprise. In December 2013, Karen Hollander, now 41, went from expectant mother shopping at Babies R Us in Westbury to giving birth in a Nassau Police ambulance in less than half an hour. Daughter Alexandra is her fifth child.

"It was quite a surprise," said Hollander, a high school math teacher who lived in Great Neck at the time. "We've never had a quick delivery like that."

Hollander, who lives with her family — husband Roger, 44, and sons Eitan, 13, Ori, 8, Adam, 6, and Elad, 3 — in Austin, Texas, said she told her obstetrician she suspected an early delivery because she had been feeling contractions, but the doctor thought it unlikely.

On Christmas Eve, as Hollander shopped for a stroller and car seat, she went into labor. She headed for the car and called her husband with the news.

"You should probably come here right now," she told him. Soon after, she called again: "You're never going to make it," she said.

They arranged to meet at Community Drive and the Long Island Expressway service road, but Karen passed the meeting point before her husband arrived and headed up Lakeville Road. When she realized she couldn't go on, she pulled into a Bank of America parking lot and called 911. The ambulance picked her up and headed for the hospital but pulled over at the corner of Northern Boulevard and Community Drive, where Karen gave birth.

Roger, now at the meeting spot, began calling his wife. On his ninth or 10th attempt, a police officer answered and told him to go to the hospital.

"I walked a few feet, turned the corner and saw Karen in a triage room, holding the baby and basically in shock with about 50 people around her, and I almost fainted on the spot," he recalled.

Roger Hollander credited the Nassau police and EMS responders with the happy outcome. "It was incredibly fun and fantastic, and I don't think it's something we would want to repeat," he said.

Hollander sent a cellphone picture to her parents, Varga and Ilan Reizes, then of Forest Hills and who now live in Las Vegas. Her father saw it first and called her mother, who could scarcely believe what she heard.

"What are you talking about?" Hollander quoted her mother saying. "I talked to her 20 minutes ago and she was shopping."

Alexandra will be a year old in a few months and is a "great baby," her mother said.

"She's very sweet," Hollander added. "She's not a great eater and not a great sleeper, but she's extremely happy, and everyone that sees her always remarks how bright-eyed she is and how smart she seems. She's too busy to sleep. She has too many things she wants to do."

An out-of-hospital birth may unnerve parents, but it serves as a source of amusement for siblings.

Regina Daniels-Jacoff said her daughter, Camille, gets a kick out of reminding her baby brother of his birthplace whenever they pass that fateful spot on Sunrise Highway.

"Aaron, look where you were born."

TRAINING IN MATTERS OF LIFE AND BREATH

An unplanned birth outside a hospital poses a few basic risks for the baby and the mother, said Dr. Adiel Fleischer, executive director of obstetrics and gynecology at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System.

For the child, it's essential to begin the breathing process. Emergency responders may need to clear the baby's mouth, nose or throat of mucus, Fleischer said.

"Sometimes the baby starts breathing spontaneously without help, but often the baby needs some help clearing the mouth and nostrils of mucus," he said. "These first few seconds of life are critical, and we're concerned, if there is nobody with some skills to do that, the newborn may suffer because of lack of oxygen."

The big risk to the mother is hemorrhage. "It doesn't happen often, but it happens often enough that we as health professionals have a number of procedures we can do to stop the mother from bleeding," Fleischer said. "They can be accomplished relatively easily, but again, they have to be done by somebody with some knowledge."

Naturally, emergency medical technicians have more extensive training, but police officers do learn the basics of emergency medical care, said Sgt. Colleen Cooney, a public information officer for the Suffolk County Police Department.

"The police academy trains all of its officers on emergency medical procedures, and as part of that training there is training on births," Cooney said. "We're trained in CPR and administering oxygen and ancillary skills we may need, but the actual delivering of a baby — that's hard to simulate in the classroom environment.

"We do have a threshold for where we transport or don't transport," she added. "If she starts to express the feeling that she wants to push or she feels wet, or if we see any discharge or the head crowning, those are things that tell us we're going to stay and have the baby here."