Officer reunites with man he helped deliver on interstate 20 years ago

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A Suwanee police officer reunited for the first time with the man he helped deliver on the side of the interstate 20 years ago.

"I hugged him and said, 'Look, we're family. I brought you into this world," officer Elton Hassell said.

On a July night in 1997 on Interstate 85 in Norcross, a crash had backed up traffic.

While sitting in the traffic jam, Hassell noticed something unusual in the car next to him.

"So I stepped out of my truck and I looked. She was in childbirth and I looked down and I saw part of a head and a full head of hair," he said.

The woman and her husband were panicked, so the officer jumped in to help deliver the baby, something he'd never done before. He also saved the baby's life.

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"The cord was around it's neck and his face was blue. His lips were blue," Hassell said.

The officer unwrapped the cord from the baby's neck -- and 20 years later that baby, now a man, could not be more thankful.

Yelsin Vazquez, 20, now has a family of his own. On Thursday in Suwanee, he reunited with Hassell.

"Oh my God. The last time I hugged you, you're weren't much bigger than her," Hassell said when he saw Vazquez and his young daughter.

Vazquez was a bit shy and did not want to speak on camera, but he said he is very grateful to Hassell.

Cox Media Group