Lincolnshire firefighters help deliver baby boy

Lincolnshire-Riverwoods firefighters are celebrating the birth of a baby boy who plopped into their lives unexpectedly at 9:24 p.m. Thursday.

The child was delivered in a sedan's passenger seat after an expecting couple sought medical attention at the Deerfield fire station on the 800 block of Saunders Road.

"It was wild," Lt. Tom Krueger said. "With all the bad stuff we see - heart attacks, fires, suffering - it's pretty cool to bring a little kid into the world."

Firefighters were relaxing a little after 9 p.m., when they received a call from an emergency phone in the station vestibule. The caller said his wife was 36 weeks pregnant and having abdominal pain. They were parked outside.

Krueger said he went to the woman in the passenger seat of the car and was evaluating her when she said "something's not right" and let out a "bloodcurdling scream."

"I checked for crowning, and she started pushing," Krueger said. "I saw the baby's head and said, 'We're going to deliver it right here in the car.' She pushed one more time, and I had a baby in my arms."

Three firefighter-paramedics - Jeff Germann, Jeff Gibson and Jason Stockton - assisted by cutting the baby's umbilical cord and swaddling him for a ride to the hospital.

Krueger said that while firefighters are trained for such emergencies, it is rare these days to deliver a baby.

The event was so special, he said, firefighters stayed up until after 1 a.m. talking about it.

"We're supposed to be these macho men without any feelings," he said. "But you do something like that, and it really lifts everybody's spirits."

Krueger, 39, who is a father of three boys, said he has delivered seven babies, including a set of twins, in his 14 years as a firefighter.

"I don't know what it is about me," he said. For firefighters, delivering a baby "is pretty rare, especially this day and age. Everyone in our crew did a fantastic job."

Because of medical privacy laws, firefighters were unable to name the family or provide information about the baby's condition other than to say he was crying on the way to the hospital and generally "doing great."

Krueger said the father stopped by the fire station Friday to thank the department and get information on its free car-seat installation program.

"I told the family, 'Now the hard part begins,'" he said.