Mom Grateful to Medics, Cops After Baby Born Along Interstate

Oct. 03--WEST HARTFORD -- A baby girl born along I-84 in West Hartford Monday is home and doing well, and her mom is grateful to the West Hartford police officers, state troopers and American Medical Response paramedics who rushed to her aid.

Kelsey Ryan, 25, was headed from her home in Norwich to the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington when her daughter Anneliese Ducasse decided it was time to enter the world.

She had called her doctor's office at UConn a short time earlier because she thought she was having contractions. They told her to wait an hour and call back. About 30 minutes later, the pain was getting worse so UConn told her to head on in.

They got as far as the Prospect Avenue exit of I-84 in West Hartford. Ryan's grandmother, Irene DeLucia, was at the wheel of the family's Subaru Tribeca when it became clear they were not going to make it to the hospital.

"I was in the passenger seat and my daughter's father and my other daughter [Lydia Ducasse] were in the back seat," Ryan recalled Friday. "I told my grandmother pull over. She wanted to go and drive around looking for a fire department."

Ryan said she told her grandmother they should stay put so police and paramedics could find them. The baby's head was already emerging, she said.

"We were on the phone with the nurse at my doctor's office," she said. The nurse told her to hang up and call 9-1-1.

"By the time I got 9-1-1 on the line, she was already born," Ryan said. The baby's father, Carlos Ducasse, had run from the driver's side back seat around the car to where Ryan was sitting.

"I pushed one time and he caught her," Ryan said. "Her whole body came out."

Ducasse then cleaned out the baby's mouth and eyes and she began to cry.

Just then the troopers and West Hartford police arrived.

"Congratulations," one of the troopers said. "She's perfect. She's healthy."

The troopers used some gauze and a binder clip to clamp the umbilical cord. When the paramedics arrived, they placed a clamp on the cord and had Ducasse cut it.

The family was then loaded into the ambulance for the rest of their ride to UConn.

At the hospital, a team was waiting to rush Ryan in, but their work was mostly done.

If her daughter had to be born along I-84, it couldn't have come out any better, Ryan said. She expressed her thanks to the emergency responders and to the 9-1-1 operator for their help.

"We're very thankful for their fast response," she said. "They were all great."

Anneliese had her first pediatrician visit Friday and is healthy and doing well. She was born about two weeks early, her mom said. And her birth certificate lists her place of birth as I-84 West, Exit 44, West Hartford.

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