A New Jersey couple welcomed a baby boy on the shoulder of the New Jersey Turnpike on July 2, with the unexpected delivery assisted by a state trooper and a phone charger.
Kristen and Alex Fast were en route to the hospital when Kristen went into labor four days earlier than expected. The couple pulled over in Secaucus at mile marker 113.3 on I-95, where their son, Archer, was born. A 911 operator guided Alex through the delivery process before New Jersey State Trooper Freddie Guacamaya arrived on the scene.
With no medical supplies readily available, the parents used an iPhone charging cord to clamp the umbilical cord. "So I panicked and just looked in the front and we just had an iPhone cable," Alex Fast told ABC7. "So we just clamped the cord with an iPhone cable."
EMTs arrived shortly after and confirmed the baby was healthy. Kristen Fast said her son is a "Jersey boy through and through," adding, "I don’t think you get more Jersey than being born on the New Jersey Turnpike."
Trooper Guacamaya and other responding officers assisted the family, driving their car to Hackensack University Medical Center and handling valet parking. The family was reunited and Archer was documented as being born on the New Jersey Turnpike.