The Great Neck Vigilant Fire Company overcame unplowed roads and ambulances stuck in the snow Saturday to deliver a Great Neck woman who had gone into labor during Winter Storm Jonas to the hospital.
Great Neck Vigilant Fire Company Chief Josh Forst said fire company members were returning to the station Saturday evening after aiding an injured pedestrian when they received a call at 5:02 p.m. about a woman on Old Pond Road in labor.
“We got to the house and walked in and the woman said she was eight-and-a-half months pregnant and her water had broke,” Forst said. “I told her the ambulance was on the way and we would get her to the hospital.”
But things didn’t work out according to plan, Forst said.
“Two to three minutes after we got there, a radio transmission came through and said [the ambulance] got stuck in snow,” he said. “I don’t know who had more fear when they heard that, me or her.”
Forst said the fire company struggled with unplowed roads throughout the storm, noting that three of their ambulances got stuck in snow.
He said by 4 p.m. main county roads in Great Neck such as Cuttermill Road and Middle Neck Road had not been plowed for close to seven or eight hours.
So, he said, he called the Nassau County Office of Emergency Management and spoke with Commissioner Craig Craft, who told him they would send out plows as soon as they could.
But the plows hadn’t yet arrived when the fire company got to the pregnant woman’s home at 5:05 p.m., Forst said.
He said they were left with two options: wait for an ambulance to make it to the home or take the woman themselves to the hospital.
“Protocol is to send another ambulance, but with Strathmore Road completely unplowed, and Cuttermill Road and Middle Neck Road unplowed also, I told her I couldn’t guarantee she would get there,” he said. “Option two is completely unorthodox, but I guaranteed I would get her to the hospital if she trusted me.”
The woman opted for Forst and fire company paramedic Steven Shapiro to take her and her husband to the hospital in a four-wheel drive Suburban owned by the company.
Forst said they were able to get the woman, who asked to remain anonymous, to North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset at 5:33 p.m.
Frost said he was celebrating his birthday that day and before he left the woman in the hands of a doctor, he gave her a message.
“I told her ‘you’ve got six hours to get this kid out on my birthday,’ he said. “Let’s see if you could do it.’”
The woman successfully delivered her baby, said her husband, who also requested to remain anonymous.
