NEW YORK – After nearly 40 years as a nurse, Lucille Nassery had no problem identifying the sounds coming in the window from Fifth Avenue. Those were definitely the sounds of childbirth.
“There’s a certain kind of sound that comes from women who are about to deliver. It’s not just a typical scream. It’s a whole-body scream,” she said Friday, hours after she ran to peer down at an SUV parked hastily in front of Mount Sinai Medical Center. A distraught man circled the vehicle, looking for help, and a very pregnant woman lay across the front seat, howling.
Nassery, a nurse manager, grabbed a team of nurses, doctors and anesthesiologists and rushed outside.
The mother, Elizabeth Brew of Scarsdale, N.Y., was 33 weeks pregnant. While she remained in the SUV, the hospital staff brought equipment into the middle of the street. A 4-pound, 13-ounce girl was delivered right out on the avenue. Passengers in taxis stuck their heads out of windows to cheer.
The mother interrupted the merriment to tell the doctors it wasn’t over yet.
A few minutes later, a 5-pound, 5-ounce boy, was delivered. Both children were healthy, but they were expected to remain hospitalized for several weeks because they were premature. Brew, 39, was admitted to recover in a hospital room.