At 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 4, 19-year-old Gary Levin awoke from a night-long nap on the couch, the television still on from the evening before. As he moved toward the bedroom to complete his sleep, the tones went off on the electronic device that links him to the world of volunteer fire and ambulance service with the Vigilant Fire Company in Great Neck. Gary Levin had no way of knowing that by responding to the call, and following to the letter his training as an emergency medical technician (EMT), he would be helping to bring a new life into the world that very morning.

"Most of the calls we get are routine, but a small percentage can wind up to be very serious, where seconds and minutes count," commented Mr. Levin.

After the tones sounded a second and a third time, he called the department dispatcher with his own location and learned that the call was in the Kenilworth neighborhood of Kings Point. While driving to the scene, he heard the tones once again summoning additional assistance for the call. "I started to go faster, because I realized it was probably more urgent than I had originally expected."

Gary Levin and Vigilant firemedic volunteer Traci Cole, age 30, arrived at the scene at the same time, and were advised by an "older person" that a pregnant woman was in labor. Inside, in a bedroom, two Kings Point police officers were timing the mother-to-be's contractions.

Mr. Levin recalls the first thing that ran through his mind. " Through the whole EMT course, this was the one section I thought I would never have to use."

The woman, in her late 20s, whose contractions were now one minute apart, informed Mr. Levin that her water had broken. Next, "Traci and I heard the ambulance arriving. I ran out and told them the status of the call."

Vigilant firefighter Adam Czynski, age 17, and 30-year veteran firefighter/engineer Edward Currivan, age 41, carried in a stretcher. As the only EMT on the call, and after taking the woman's medical history, Gary Levin deemed it prudent to transport her to the hospital for the delivery. "We were going to North Shore University Hospital (NSUH) because it was the nearest hospital and the rules say we must go to the nearest facility," stated Mr. Levin.

In the ambulance, he asked the mother "if she felt the baby coming and she said she did, so then I checked for crowning (appearance of the baby's head), but there was no crowning. But we knew the baby was coming, so we put a sheet over her, set up the obstetrics kit and then the baby started to crown." On the third crowning, he instructed the mother to push.

Reflecting back, Mr. Levin remembers that "once it came down to knowing I was the only one who was qualified to do the delivery on the bus (ambulance), then I focused and I lost my nervousness. I was so focused on what was going on that I blocked out everything else. She pushed the baby out to the neck. Traci and Adam helped me get the supplies I needed and did a good job of emotional support to the mother. That was their main thing. I was telling her she was doing a good job and I was telling her to push when she needed to."

With the emergence of the neck, the baby started to cry, "which was a big sigh of relief to me...it was an indication that the baby was breathing," said Gary Levin.

After he suctioned the baby's mouth and nose with the proper equipment, the mother's next contraction pushed the baby out to about the waist. "Then I put my hands out to catch the baby and on the next contraction, it came out completely...The baby girl appeared to be very healthy and was crying vigorously," stated Mr. Levin.

After cleaning up the baby, he clamped the cord, cut it, and "Adam took a towel and wrapped her into the towel and handed her to the mother." Upon the ambulance's arrival at NSUH, the hospital staff took charge.

After it was over, how did he feel? "I was coming down from a real adrenaline rush. I was happy! It was an amazing experience. The father thanked me, too, in the hospital. I wrote the report and then we went back to the scene to get our cars, and then I went home. I told my mother and my father when I went home, and they were proud of me."

All in all , Mr. Levin found it to be "a textbook delivery."

Gary Levin is no stranger to North Shore University Hospital. Besides volunteering with Vigilant, he is employed in the NSUH emergency room to transport patients to radiology and other service departments. When he reported for work later that day at the hospital, "a lot of people knew about it. They congratulated me. And at Vigilant, everyone congratulated me. In recent years at Vigilant, there have been situations where babies had already been born by the time we got to their house on the call. This was a pretty rare occurrence."

Gary Levin was raised in Great Neck, attended Great Neck North High School and is now studying math and science at Nassau Community College. When he joined Vigilant as a volunteer firefighter in late 1997, he had already taken an approved EMT course through NSUH at the Wantagh Fire Department.

Not surprisingly, he is looking ahead to a career in medicine. Mr. Levin stated that he is hoping to transfer from Nassau Community College to SUNY Binghamton to "possibly study pre-med. I might want to become a surgeon." In the little spare time he has, his "only hobby right now is doing fire fighting and being an EMT."

Reflecting on the teamwork that helped to make this call a success, he stated, "Adam and Traci did an excellent job of assisting me and giving emotional support to the mother, and Ed did a fantastic job of driving."

For Gary Levin, "Vigilant is like an extended family to me...because you gain a lot of camaraderie and you realize you have to depend on these people."

Vigilant Chief Andrew DeMartin commented, "We are all very proud of the entire crew and their efforts, and even though their time in the company is not extensive, due to the fact that they had excellent training, they were able to put themselves in a difficult situation and come out winners. It is nice at this point that we have quite a few young, motivated and intelligent people coming into the fire service, and our numbers are as good as they've ever been."

All in all, says Gary Levin, "this experience was one of the most incredible I've ever had, and one that I am sure both my crew and I will never forget."