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NEW JERSEY COPS n MAY 2014
A Job Well Done
Calling Doctor 398
Manchester officer delivers baby boy
n BY NEIL VISTA
On April 17, Manchester Township Police Officer Joseph Fastige
was on routine patrol, unaware that dispatcher Alia Hartman at the
Ocean County Sheriff’s Department Office of Public Safety received
a 9-1-1 call at about 11:45 p.m., reporting that a woman on Amsterdam Avenue was in labor.
Just a few blocks away, 24-year-old Fastige, a two-and-a-halfyear veteran of the force, responded to the call.
Hartman had never delivered a baby via Emergency Medical
Dispatch and Fastige, 24, had training, but had never delivered a
baby.
As Fastige drove to the home, Hartman knew the mother’s contractions were only one minute apart and the baby’s head was
crowning. She instructed the family about what to do until Fastige
arrived on scene. Common sense and training would end up guiding Fastige through the birth that took just three minutes, but
seemed like an eternity.
“By the time I got there I could see baby crowning,” Fastige said.
“I knew the baby was ready to come out.”
Fastige also noticed that the umbilical cord was wrapped around
the infant’s neck. Quick thinking by the officer saved the baby’s life.
“I told the mother that she had to push and when she did I was
able to get in there and unwrap the cord,” he said.
“Never would I think I would be doing something like that. It was
an awesome experience,” said Fastige who has no children but will
marry his fiancée Kaila Corliss next month.
The child’s father, Jason Roach, and Fastig H