There is such a thing as a selfless deed. A heavily pregnant doctor, based in Kentucky, weighed in to help deliver a baby minutes before her own water broke.
Amanda Hess, an obstetrician-gynecologist from Frankfort, was admitted to the Frankfort Regional Medical Center last week. She was moments away from going into labour when she heard another woman crying in pain, NBCNews reported.
Leah Halliday Johnson, who was about to give birth to her fourth child, happened to be Hess' patient and had seen her during her final prenatal appointment. Johnson said Hess had examined her during her pregnancy but wasn't exclusively her doctor at Women's Care of the Blue Grass.
"I saw her three or four times, and I liked her a lot. She wasn't supposed to be on call since she was having a baby herself," Johnson was quoted by NBCNews as saying.
The nurses at the hospital informed Hess that Johnson's baby was coming faster than expected and the umbilical cord was tied loosely around the child's neck. The on-call doctor was on the way but Hess sensed the baby needed immediate attention. " I put another gown on to cover my backside, put some splash boots on over my flip flops," she said.
"I just put on another gown to cover up my backside and put on some boots over my shoes, to keep from getting any fluid and all that stuff on me, and went down to her room," Hess was quoted by Washington Post as saying.
"I had actually taken a call the day before, so I thought really that I was working up to the last minute. But this was literally 'til the last second... I said you know, I'm not on call, I'm here in a gown, but I think we ought to have the baby," Hess said in an interview with LEX 18.
Meanwhile, Johnson told People.com that the nurses were urging her to not push but the pain was getting worse. She said she didn't realise Hess was in labour too.
"She was definitely in doctor mode. My husband noticed something was going on because she had on a hospital gown, but I didn't notice that because I was on the delivery table. I was in my own world there," Johnson, who gave birth to a baby girl, told NBC.
After the on-call doctor arrived at the hospital, she took over and Hess went back to her delivery room and gave birth to a baby girl.
"Pretty amazing what she did. I feel very lucky she was there and the type of person she is and step up to do what she did. We really appreciate her," Johnson was quoted by the Washington Post as saying citing Lex 18.
