Mangano praises LIE baby deliverers

A day after a quick-thinking Nassau police officer and an advanced medical technician delivered a baby girl in a vehicle on the side of the Long Island Expressway in North Hills, the pair were being hailed as heroes.

"These are real professionals," said County Executive Edward Mangano, speaking of the work of Nassau Police Officer Frank Mancini and Advanced Medical Technician Scott DiPino.

The two men jumped into action Sunday night when a Hicksville woman, 29, told her husband to pull over just before 9 p.m. on the westbound LIE at Exit 39, saying she was in the process of giving birth. They were on their way to a hospital because she was expecting to deliver soon.

But she went into labor in the car and her husband dialed 911.

A short time later, Mancini of the Sixth Precinct, began searching for the family amid heavy rain. Mancini initially looked for them at Exit 36, where the caller said he was, but found them at Exit 39 -- just in time to greet the impatient baby's arrival.

She was three-quarters of the way out when help arrived. "At that point, I felt a tap on my shoulder," Mancini said at a news conference with DiPino at the Sixth Precinct in Manhasset. "AMT DiPino said to me, 'I got it,' and that was a huge relief."

The infant and mother were taken to Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola for treatment, officials said.

"Make no mistake, the true hero here was the mother," Mancini said. "At no point did she ever complain of pain or even cry. I was actually amazed being a father of two and a third on the way. The only cry . . . came from the baby and that was the most beautiful thing."

Said DiPino: "It's nice to have a nice story on the LIE. We have all the stories on the LIE that are too tragic."