Born yesterday in the back seat of a Brooklyn taxi, Elina Zhao is a precious early Christmas gift for her proud parents – but she was nearly a holiday tragedy.
The baby, born not breathing, is healthy thanks to a Borough Park cop who’d been flagged down by the cabby speeding the expectant mom to a hospital just before noon.
The quick-acting officer cleared the baby’s airway, and cheers went up from the cabby, four attending cops and the relieved dad gathered around the mother and crying infant.
“The baby is from God,” mom Fang Zhu said from her bed at Maimonides Medical Center yesterday.
“She’s a surprise for Christmas.”
Zhu, a 30-year-old waitress, was en route with her husband to Brooklyn Hospital in Fort Greene when they ran out of time on Tenth Avenue near 49th Street, miles away from delivery room.
“Baby coming!” Zhu screamed to the driver.
The cabby flagged down the patrol car of Officers Kerryann Douglass and Joved Serrano.
Douglass, a 17-year NYPD veteran and mother of three, leaned into the back seat and catch little Elina.
“I get the stuff out of the baby’s mouth, and she started crying, and I was like, ‘Yes!’ ” Douglass recounted.
“It’s an overwhelmingly beautiful feeling.”
The cops radioed their lieutenant, Hector Lugo, who arrived with Officer Avery Lippel. An EMT with 21 years experience, Lugo snipped the umbilical cord and stabilize the mom.
“It’s a beautiful thing to see a baby being born,” Lugo said.
Zhu, and her husband, An Zhao, 30, a chef, immigrated from China 10 years ago, and have a 15-month-old son at home.
“Now you’re looking at your daddy!” the ecstatic dad said as he held his 6-pound, 13-ounce daughter at the hospital. The baby opened her eyes, and Zhao beamed at her.
“You scared your daddy today,” he said, lovingly.
Zhu said she appreciated all the help from the police. “I’m so happy the baby is healthy.”