A newborn baby in New York City got a second chance at life when bystanders — including a doorman and a group of EMTs — rushed to help him after he was left abandoned outside of an apartment building.
Around 3:15 a.m. on Thursday, July 11, a doorman in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan walked outside the front door of the West 23rd Street luxury apartment building where he works when he heard cries from the baby, police said, per ABC7, News 12 New York and CBS News New York. The unnamed baby boy was lying in the street naked and wrapped in a blanket with his umbilical cord still attached, police added, noting that he was conscious and alert.
A man named Ronald Robertson, who told NBC New York he was sleeping under the nearby High Line, said that he first heard the baby crying minutes before and flagged down the doorman.
“I couldn’t believe it. I thought I was seeing things,” Robertson told the outlet. “I wasn’t going to sit there and let a baby die, I have three kids of my own.”
According to the outlets, the doorman proceeded to run across the street to knock on the window of an ambulance where two EMTs, Mia Chin and Patrick Feimer, were finishing up their shift at FDNY EMS Station 7.
“It was fresh. It was a fresh delivery, so it probably happened moments before,” Chin said of the baby boy during a press conference.
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Chin said that she and her partner sprung into action, running to help the newborn and bring him inside the station for further medical care, according to a Facebook post shared by the FDNY. Paramedics Jack Kaddah and Dennison Rougier then transported the baby to a nearby hospital, the department added.
“We just fell back on our training,” Chin said during the press conference, according to CBS News New York. “We relied on what the fire department has taught us time and time again, and we immediately brought the infant to our desk lieutenant and waited for medics to transport the child to Bellevue [Hospital].”
“Getting a knock on the window like that, you don’t know what you’re going to walk into,” Feimer said, per the outlet. “So we just ran over and tried to assess the situation and when we saw [the newborn], that’s when you kind of snap into action.”
“When I approached the infant it was crying and cooing and waving, and I was just so happy that the child was alive, was well, didn’t have any obvious injuries,” Chin added.
According to multiple outlets, the mother — 37-year-old Ayatta Swann — was identified after she checked herself into the same hospital that the baby was taken to. The NYPD said that Swann was charged with abandonment of a child, per News 12 New York and CBS News New York.
New York City Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh noted during the press conference that New York has a safe haven law, which allows babies “up to 30 days of age” to be left in a safe location, such as a hospital or fire station without providing additional information if they notify an “appropriate person,” per the Office of Children and Family Services.
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“We are very lucky that that doorman was able to alert them and that they were there so we could intervene right away,” Kavanagh said during the press conference, according to CBS News New York. “You can bring [newborns] to the station or the firehouse or police precinct and knock on the door and not be asked any additional questions.”
Kavanagh said the child is doing well and “is going to survive.”
The NYPD did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for information.
