PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- Holiday travelers on Philadelphia's Market-Frankford El train faced an unexpected delay Christmas Eve, as a pair of public transit officers were called on to deliver a baby inside a train car.
Philadelphia police Sergeant Daniel Caban and officer Darrell James were patrolling the surface near the entrance to the downtown 15th Street Station just before 6 p.m. Wednesday when a passerby told the officers a woman was ready to give birth on the train car currently in the station.
Caban and James rushed down to the subway car to find the baby's head already crowned to the point it was visible through his mother's sweatpants.
"As soon as we got there, I could see the baby's head coming through her sweatpants, and we just went right to work," Caban told KYW News Radio.
Within minutes, Caban was holding a newborn boy.
Exacerbating the already tense situation further, the young Asian couple who were about to become parents spoke very limited English.
"Are you Dad?" the officers asked the new father. Caban and James motioned for the man's shirt to swaddle the baby, but unclear specifically why they were asking, the man offered his tank top -- a common option for for a tourniquet in medical emergencies, but not what the officers needed. Upon clarification, the baby's father offered his sweater for Caban to swaddle the newborn in, and soon the mother and her baby were "at peace" together according to Caban.
Medics arrived minutes later and the new family was taken to Hahnemann University Hospital.
"It was the best Christmas gift that I would ever be able to ask for," James told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
"Having a kid born on Christmas but also being able to help a family."
