New hadron discovered at Entrance B (mother and baby doing fine)
Hadron: A heavy, strongly interacting particle. So say the dictionaries, and the definition seems entirely appropriate for the latest addition to a particular family that was passing CERN’s Entrance B on Monday afternoon en route for the Hôpital de la Tour.
The father of the baby (left) and the members of the CERN Fire Brigade and Medical Service dealing with the unexpected happy event. (Photo by D. Pagnani, CERN Fireman. The photo is reproduced by the CERN Bulletin with the agreement of the di Castro family.)
The new "hadron" certainly showed the strength of its desire to interact with the world in arriving a little earlier than expected, causing its fraught parents to pull up the car and seek help at the first port of call. Luckily for them, that turned out to be CERN. Our medical service and ambulance personnel proved to be entirely up to the task. The fire brigade provided first aid, and was soon joined by the medical service, which ensured that mother and baby were in great shape before CERN’s Cardiomobile delivered the newly enlarged family to the hospital.
“In all my 20 years at CERN, I’ve seen many things, but this is a first,” said Véronique Fassnacht, Head of the CERN Medical Service. “In fact the last time something similar happened at CERN was 40 years ago.”
“Everything happened very fast but went incredibly smoothly,” said Mario di Castro, father of the newborn and a fellow in the STI-ECE section of the EN Department. “The CERN Fire Brigade arrived just after the birth and clamped the umbilical cord. Together with the Medical Service they were all very helpful and professional.”
Never separating the mother from the newborn, they continuously monitored the health of the mother and the baby, reassuring the parents in an impeccable way, telling them precisely what was going on. Thanks to this, the whole family remained very calm throughout the whole adventure! When the happy family eventually arrived at the hospital they were also told that everything had been dealt with so well that no special additional care was needed. Lorenzo, born at CERN's Entrance B at 17.10 on 26 August 2013 and weighing 3.480 kg, and his mother are already back home.
Hadrons, it should be noted, usually come in multiplets. Perhaps best not to tell the parents!
The di Castro family would like to thank all the CERN services, including the guard on duty at Entrance B during the birth of their son. They will never forget their precious help.
