David Horvitz, Zanna Gilbert, and Ela Melanie. Image courtesy New York Post
The New York Post reports that on Monday, Zanna Gilbert, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Drawings and Prints at MoMA, and artist David Horvitz ushered in their new baby in the back of an Uber on the way to Mt. Sinai hospital. The birth-in-transit seems oddly apropos for Gilbert and Horvitz, who seem to be New York’s reigning young mail art couple. Here’s a cute interview on mail art between Gilbert and Horvitz.
Luckily, the driver was delighted, and was even treated to a car detail and Knicks tickets on behalf of Uber.
Mom and baby are reportedly happy and healthy. Congratulations Gilbert and Horvitz!
Here’s the full story from the New York Post:
They’re one app-y family!
A pregnant Brooklyn woman woke up to contractions Monday morning and hopped into an Uber car to head to the hospital — only to wind up giving birth in the back seat.
“We heard crying. The next thing I know, I had a baby in my hand. We were all in shock,” dad David Horvitz, 33, told The Post.
“I always wanted to catch the baby. And I got to — but I didn’t think I’d be the only there to do the catching,” he quipped.
Horvitz digitally hailed the Nissan Altima with the Uber app for his wife, Zanna Gilbert, a 34-year-old art historian and curator at the MoMA, after she woke up around 5 a.m.
He said he looked on his smartphone and saw that an Uber car was 5 minutes away from their Crown Heights apartment.
The couple told Uber driver Germaine Allen, 32, to take them to their Manhattan hospital, Mt. Sinai, about 12 miles away.
They got as far as 57th Street and Park Avenue, a couple blocks from Mt. Sinai, when their 7-pound daughter was born.
Allen drove on to the hospital, and nurses rushed out to help the couple.
“I just kept telling the driver I was sorry,” Horvitz said. “But he said, ‘Don’t worry, that was amazing!’”
The couple named their baby Ela Melanie — paying tribute to Horvitz’s father, Melvin, who passed away in January.
Allen, who is expecting his own baby girl in two months, said passengers always ask him what’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened in his car.
“Now I have a story,” he said.
Uber gave the cabbie and soon-to-be dad a pair of Knicks tickets to thank him on Monday — and had his car cleaned for him.
“This is one of those only-in-New-York stories,” said Josh Mohrer, a general manager for Uber in New York. “As a new dad myself, I am thrilled to send our best wishes to the happy family, and especially to the new Uber baby.”