Douglaston Brothers Deliver Baby During Blizzard

Two Douglaston brothers who work as emergency medical technicians delivered their first baby at a home in Bayside during Sunday's treacherous blizzard after realizing they would not make it to the hospital in time.

Joseph, 20, and Frank Pollicino, 23, helped a Bayside mother deliver her child through a complicated breech birth process around 1 a.m. Sunday morning.

The brothers, who are trained EMTs and members of the volunteer Little Neck Douglaston Community Ambulance Corps, said they had never delivered a baby prior to the night of the storm.

"We got the call for an emergency," Joseph Pollicino said. "When we arrived on the scene, the woman was already in labor. Her contractions were about a minute-and-a-half apart, which is a good sign that the baby is coming."

But the siblings, who live in Douglaston, first had to break through a four-foot wall of snow blocking the door to the apartment building on 211th Street and 21st Avenue in Bayside to reach the pregnant woman.

Once inside, the Pollicinos realized the baby was coming out feet-first and that they would need to perform a breech birth – a process that can result in oxygen deprivation or brain injury to the infant.

"With the blizzard outside, we knew we would not be able to get her out to the hospital in time," Joseph Pollicino said. "We wouldn't have been able to get her on a stretcher. It was still snowing very badly. We couldn't even drive the ambulance up to the door."

Joseph helped the mother through the birth process as his brother went back to the ambulance for a child delivery kit.

"I ran downstairs to get more equipment, leaving my brother upstairs with the patient," Frank Pollicino said. "By the time I got upstairs, the baby was already delivered."

After the baby was born, a city fire truck helped clear out the snow for the ambulance.

Then, a snowplow that had been cleaning the streets in Bayside as well as a city Sanitation Department truck helped create a path for the ambulance all the way to Flushing Hospital.

The brothers said they were not allowed to disclose the pregnant woman's name for reasons of privacy. But they said that the mother and her baby boy were in healthy condition.

Neither the hospital nor the mother could be reached for comment.

Joseph Pollicino said he was relieved that he and his brother carried out the delivery process correctly, considering the danger involved in the type of birth.

"This was the first time I ever delivered a baby and, on top of that, during a blizzard," he said. "With a breech delivery, so many things can go wrong. I was worried for the baby's sake. I wouldn't have been able to do it by myself. My brother was very helpful."

The Little Neck Douglaston Community Ambulance Corps is located at 42-18 Marathon Parkway.