Marlborough Firefighter Delivers Own Daughter On I-290

MARLBOROUGH, MA — Savannah wasn't going wait to get to the hospital.

She arrived around 12:36 a.m. Thursday in an ambulance along Interstate 290. Luckily, her dad is Marlborough firefighter Matt Lupisella, and he had all the skills to deliver her safely.

The emergency unique birth story began late Wednesday when Matt and his fiancée, Jennifer, went to Emerson Hospital in Concord expecting to have a standard delivery, said grandmother Sue Lupisella. But the hospital told them they were too early and sent them back home to Marlborough.

Forty-five minutes later, the couple was calling an ambulance because Savannah was on her way. Rather than go back to Emerson, the ambulance picked up the couple to take them to UMass Memorial in Worcester. But before they could get there, the ambulance driver — Joseh Tamulen, whom Lupisella knows from work — pulled over along the highway to allow Lupisella to work on the delivery. He also had a hand in the ambulance from paramedics Rob Nickerson and Steve Brosque.

Sue Lupisella said she only noticed the odd delivery location when her son sent her a photo of the newborn.

"I looked at the picture and said, wait a minute, that doesn't look like a comfortable bed!" she said Thursday morning.

The 6-pound, 12-ounce baby girl is healthy and resting with her parents at UMass, Sue Lupisella said. The couple also have an infant boy who just turned 1 in April, and an 8-year-old named Michael.

Savannah was the second baby Lupisella has delivered in his 11 years as a local firefighter.

Lupisella is one of three brothers born and raised in Marlborough. All three served in either the Iraq or Afghanistan wars as Marines, and Lupisella's brother, Mike, just joined the Marlborough Fire Department at the beginning of April.