Two nurses at Hackensack University Medical Center put their training to work in a parking garage, delivery an impatient baby.
If you have to give birth in a parking garage, by all means make sure it's the parking garage of a hospital at a time when nurses are arriving for their shifts.
Selis and Mustafa Tavsancil, of Edgewater, arrived at the parking garage of the Women's and Children's Hospital at Hackensack UMC at about 7 a.m. Thursday, intending to meet their obstetrician. Selis' contractions had started hours ago.
They parked and began walking toward the elevators when Selis told her husband she couldn't go on, Mustafa Tavsancil told hospital officials later. "She just stopped and said she was in too much pain," he said. "She told me, 'The baby is coming. I can feel his head.'"
About that time Denise DeSalvo, nurse and supervisor in the Pediatric Operating Room at the Joseph M. Sanzari Children's Hospital, was arriving for work.
"The woman was crying and the husband was rubbing her back trying to comfort her," said DeSalvo, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
"I asked if she needed help and she said yes - then I noticed she was pregnant. I told her, 'I will get you to where you need to go.' I then called Security and asked for a wheelchair. While I was on the phone, the woman let out this cry and I asked her, 'Is this happening now?' And, she said 'yes.'"
By luck, a second employee was also arriving for work: Christine Zweil, a nurse who works in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Joseph M. Sanzari Children's Hospital. DeSalvo called out to her to help: "This is happening now. We have got to do this."
"There was no time," said Zweil. "The water broke and within seconds the baby started to crown and out he came."
With Selis standing, the baby was born and Zweil caught him, holding him until help arrived and the umbilical cord could be cut.
The nurses wrapped the baby in the parent's clothing to keep him warm.
"It was amazing, the child was out," said the new father. There were 15 or 16 people running towards us. They were organized and everyone was doing something."
It was the first delivery for both nurses.
"We are so proud of the heroic actions taken by Christine and Denise who didn't hesitate for a moment to help someone they saw in distress," said Dianne A.M. Aroh, chief patient care and clinical officer at the hospital. After their eventful morning, both women went to work their regular shifts.
Aksel Onur Tavsancil weighs six pounds nine ounces and measures 19 inches long.
Just a day old, he already has a good story to tell.
Kathleen O'Brien may be reached at kobrien@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @OBrienLedger. Find NJ.com on Facebook.