Baby born in hospital parking lot is named 'Carson'
Jodi-Ann Jones en route to the hospital to give birth ended up giving birth in the parking lot to Carson at Cohen Children's Hospital. (Aug. 20, 2010) Credit: William Perlman
Jodi-Ann Jones said she'd decided on the name "Carson" for her fourth child months earlier. But little did she know the name would come to have a special significance.
On Tuesday, Jones delivered her son in the car in the parking lot just outside the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York in New Hyde Park.
To add to the unusual nature of his arrival, it was a pediatric dental resident who was the first to help usher the now-healthy 9.1-pound Carson into the world at 12:10 p.m.
Jones, a licensed practical nurse from Rockaway Beach, said she awoke Tuesday with some contractions - not uncommon given that her baby was due five days later. But en route to her regular doctor's appointment, the contractions became more intense, Jones said at the hospital Friday.
Carson's father, Julian Bowen, a videographer, said Jones began to yell as they neared the hospital. "She was grabbing me," he said. "She was screaming."
As Bowen pulled the sedan into the parking lot and began calling for help, parking attendants Efrain Carvajal and Victor Barros flagged down two first-year pediatric dental residents LoanAnh Bui and Jerry Ashrafi.
Jones said she had pushed the seat all the way back to give her more room. Bui said the baby "was half out and blue." The umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck.
Julian Bowen, the father along with Jodi-Ann Jones en route to the hospital to give birth ended up giving birth in the parking lot to Carson as they speak at Cohen Children's Hospital. (Aug. 20, 2010) Credit: William Perlman
Bui had worked as a physician assistant in an emergency department and knew exactly what to do: She unwrapped the cord as the baby came out and cleared his airways as he lay on the floor mat.
Within minutes, doctors and nurses from the neonatal intensive care unit arrived. Dr. Katie Lackritz, an obstetric resident, clamped the cord. Then Dr. Dennis Davidson, chief of the NICU, laid the baby on the ground, protected by blankets.
"His color was not optimal, and his breathing was shallow," Davidson said Friday.
Davidson began resuscitating the newborn and checking his breathing and heart rate. Within two minutes, Davidson said, staff had brought an incubator to the parking lot, where the newborn was placed and given oxygen as he was whisked off to the NICU.
Now perfectly healthy, Carson is due to go home Saturday.
For his mother, the homecoming will cap an eventful few days.
"I'm still in shock," she said.
