Crime & Safety
UPDATED: Collegeville Officer Delivers Baby in TD Bank Parking Lot
Police Officer Matt Cubbler delivered a borough resident's baby at 6:30 a.m. Thursday when he was first to arrive on an EMS call.
This article was updated Dec. 6 at 5:30 p.m., after Patch interviewed officer Matt Cubbler and Trappe Ambulance Captain Paul Gianini.
Collegeville Police Officer Matt Cubbler delivered a borough resident’s baby at 6:30 a.m. Thursday.
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According to Cubbler, the resident went into labor around 5:30 a.m. and was traveling down Park Ave in a vehicle with her two children.
When the woman realized she wouldn’t make it to the hospital, she pulled into the TD Bank on 2nd Avenue in Collegeville and called 911.
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Cubbler, the overnight officer on duty, responded to the call before an ambulance arrived on the scene.
"I heard the maternity call, so I went out - I was the first one there," Cubbler said.
The baby was crowning when Cubbler pulled up, and the woman's kids were in the back seat of the car.
"This was her third child, so I don't think she expected things to develop so quickly," said Cubbler.
After moving the other two children into his police car, Cubbler tried to make her comfortable.
Hearing the ambulance sirens approaching, he asked the woman to stop pushing and wait for the ambulance.
"There are much more qualified people than me to do this job," Cubbler said.
"You're all I've got," was her reply, according to Cubbler.
With that, a baby boy was born.
Support from Trappe Ambulance Co. was on the scene less than four minutes after Cubbler arrived, in time to finish the birth and cut the umbilical cord.
"Trappe Ambulance was amazing - they are every bit as amazing as they should be," said Cubbler.
Paramedics Matt Byrd and Clint Tichnell were on the first ambulance to arrive, followed by Paul Giannini.
Giannini, who was also coming off of an overnight duty, helped cut the umbilical chord on the seventh child he's helped to deliver.
"'[Giannini] was great - he brought the baby right over to meet his brother and sister," said Cubbler.
A crew from Trappe Ambulance's Limerick Station was also called in for "extra hands," according to Giannini.
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