By Charles W. Kim, Managing Editor
Diego Salinas knew his wife was probably going to give birth Wednesday, but he certainly did not see himself as the midwife.
”Never in my life, did I think this would happen to me,” Mr. Salinas said in a telephone interview from St. Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick Wednesday afternoon.
Mr. Salinas, 28, was driving his pregnant wife, Alicia Lopez-Apolonio, 32, and his two daughters, Johana, 7, and Alexa, 5, from their home in Jamesburg to the hospital in New Brunswick at 8:30 a.m. when Ms. Apolonio started to deliver the baby.
”My brother in law lives in New Brunswick and we were going to drop off my daughters there,” Mr. Salinas, who works for a granite business in North Brunswick, said. “That was the plan.”
As the family proceeded down Deans Rhode Hall Road toward Route 130, Ms. Apolonio started screaming and pleaded with her husband to pull the car over to the side of the road.
”There was no room (to pull over) because of the guardrail,” Mr. Salinas said. “Finally I found a spot. I could see the baby’s head coming out.”
Despite being extremely nervous, Mr. Salinas did what he could to assist his wife in the delivery of their newborn son.
”I was so nervous, I couldn’t dial the phone until I was holding the baby,” Mr. Salinas said.
With his son in his hands, and still attached to his mother through the umbilical cord, Mr. Salinas was finally able to call 911.
”I cleaned the baby’s nose and cleaned him off,” Mr. Salinas said. “It was so fast, like five minutes.”
Speaking with the 911 dispatcher, Mr. Salinas was concerned that his son did not immediately cry. But as soon as the dispatcher asked the question, the baby cried.
In minutes, South Brunswick police and EMS workers arrived on the scene and made sure everything was okay.
The EMS workers let Mr. Salinas cut the cord on the baby and then transported the baby and mother to the hospital, Mr. Salinas said.
”I told my wife; ‘why are you doing this to me?” Mr. Salinas said.
Mr. Salinas said the two younger girls in the backseat were upset because they didn’t understand the situation and he kept trying to reassure them that their mom would be okay.
Mr. Salinas’s brother in law eventually picked up the girls at the hospital, leaving mom, dad, and new son, Alex, to spend time.
”My wife named the baby after the first (EMS) officer that arrived,” Mr. Salinas said.
Mr. Salinas said he was amazed how the time passed, such a short amount of time that seemed so much longer.
”The five minutes seemed like it was 10 hours,” Mr. Salinas said.
