Medical Student, 21, Delivers His First Baby At A TUBE Station After Coming To Pregnant Womans Aid
A first-year medical student put his skills to the test when he delivered his first baby at a London underground station. Hamzah Selim ran to the rescue of the woman after hearing her cries at Warren Street station in central London on the afternoon of January 15.
The 21-year-old who is studying at University College London had spotted the expectant mother leaning against a wall near the train’s platform. After rushing over to her to see what was wrong, he realised she was in labour.
Speaking to the Evening Standard he said: ‘It was just instinct. The whole experience was unbelievable. It was such a mad coincidence.’
Mr Selim was on his way home following an anatomy lecture at a nearby university campus when he heard the woman in distress. The woman told him that she had been on a shopping trip with her sister and had been forced to take the tube after she was unable to flag down a taxi.
She realised she was going into labour on the platform just before 2pm and had told Mr Selim that she had previously given birth to three other children.
Mr Selim said he heard passengers shout for help before he realised there was a woman screaming for assistance. ‘I went over to help because it looked like she was about to faint. I thought ‘Oh my goodness, they didn’t teach us how to do this — how to give birth on the Tube’.’
Mr Selim said his training from the time he spent working on a maternity ward kicked in. He added: ‘The mum did absolutely great given it was the first birth I was involved in outside the textbook’.
Paramedics attended the scene a few minutes after the boy was born and cut the umbilical cord and the child was later taken to hospital by medics. A Transport for London spokesman added: ‘We’d like to thank the staff at Warren Street station, who did a fantastic job in assisting the customer who gave birth.
‘London Ambulance Service attended and both mother and child were taken to hospital.’
Speaking to the MailOnline, a spokesperson for the London Ambulance Service said: ‘We were called at 1:41pm yesterday (15 January) to reports of an incident at Warren Street Underground Station, NW1. ‘We sent an ambulance crew and two medics in cars to the scene.
‘We treated a woman and a baby at the scene and took them both to hospital as a priority.’ By TERRI-ANN WILLIAMS FOR MAILONLINE
