By Jon Schuppe
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
HARLEM — Pattie Jacobs woke up at 5 a.m. Wednesday in pain — nothing unusual for a woman who’d been pregnant eight months with twins. So she sent her 8-year-old son to school and waited for it to subside.
It didn’t. About 7:12 a.m., she went to the bathroom and sat on the toilet. Then, as she recalled hours later, "My baby came flying out."
She said to her self, “Oh, God,” and dialed 911 on her cell phone.
The dispatcher told Jacobs, 34, to wrap the crying boy in a towel and get to her apartment door. Somehow she did, and before she could start panicking, two firefighters were reaching down to help her.
They were from Engine 37 on 125th Street, around the corner from Jacobs’s Convent Avenue building. One of them, John Behringer, suctioned the newborn's mouth and nose. The other, Mike Schneider, cut the umbilical cord.
Together, they helped Jacobs into an ambulance for Harlem Hospital. The second twin, a girl, was born just after 8 a.m. Both babies were transferred to the intensive care unit, where they were reportedly doing fine.
Later that day, Behringer and Schneider returned to the hospital to check in on Jacobs. They brought her stuffed animals and a firehouse t-shirt, which she clutched in her hands as they relived the morning’s ordeal.
“I’m just so happy it’s over,” Jacobs said.
Behringer, a nine-year member of the fire department and a father of three, said this was his first on-the-job delivery. Same for Schneider, who has been a firefighter for three years. Both said they were relieved they made it to the hospital before the second baby arrived.
“It was pretty crazy there for a while,” Behringer said.
The firefighters seemed uncomfortable accepting so much thanks. “She did all the work,” Schneider said. “We just helped her out.”
It was after 4 p.m. Jacobs still had not seen her twins, named Michael and Madison. So the nurses took her to their cribs, escorted by the two firefighters.
