Savannah Muirhead Born on the Hutch in Scarsdale

Simone Thomas Muirhead of Mt. Vernon wasn’t expecting her baby for three weeks, but as a trained nurse, she was already prepared. Thomas works in the ICU at Montefiore Hospital but planned to deliver the baby at White Plains Hospital. Early on the morning of August 4th, 4:45 am to be exact, she woke up feeling some “discomfort” and called in sick to work. By 5:30 am the pain got worse and it felt like she was having contractions every fifteen minutes.

At that point, she told her husband that they had better head to the hospital – and as they left home she had the presence of mind to ask him to grab the suction bulb that she had bought a few days before.

Once in the car, things moved quickly. She felt the baby coming and asked her husband to drive quickly. Not wanting to get a ticket, he ignored her pleas to “floor it,” and stayed within the speed limit. But the baby was eager to make her entrance into the world and didn’t wait to get to White Plains. At the Weaver Street exit on the Hutchinson River Parkway in Scarsdale, Thomas felt the baby emerging and told her husband to pull over and call 911, which he did at 5:55 am.

By the time the police, SCARVAC paramedics and the fire department arrived at 6:01 am, Savannah Muirhead was already born. She came out crying and the couple used the suction bulb to clear her passages. They wrapped her up in the new robe that Thomas had purchased for her hospital stay and waited for help to arrive.

First to reach the car was a police officer who instructed them to turn off the car engine. The paramedics arrived and suctioned the baby again, wrapped her in foil to retain body heat and handed Thomas’s husband a scalpel to cut the umbilical cord. Next, mom and baby were transferred to an ambulance and taken to White Plains hospital where Muirhead gave birth to the placenta. The baby cried the whole way and once at the hospital weighed in at 5 pounds 2 ounces.

Today, Savannah Muirhead is at home with her very capable parents -- and though her birth certificate says she was born in White Plains, the truth is that she came into the world in Scarsdale.

And what about the car? How did it fare? No problem! Muirhead also had pads in the car to protect the upholstery so the Toyota came through the procedure beautifully as well.

Muirhead is grateful to all the emergency workers for their help and wishes to thank Scarsdale, New Rochelle and Westchester County police and firefighters and Scarsdale Volunteer Ambulance Corps for their assistance.