Doctor forced to deliver wife’s baby in rush-hour traffic

November 14, 2009 by Shawn Douglas
Filed under: News

A doctor was forced to deliver the baby after she started going into labor during heavy traffic.

Wissam Alfahli, cardiology specialist registrar at St Vincent’s Hospital in south Dublin, was driving from Clonsilla on the N3 with his wife, Razan, when she suddenly went into labor.

Stuck in near standstill traffic, Alfahli wove through traffic in a rush to the hospital.

“My wife went into labor, and I was stuck in traffic,” Alfahli told the Irish Independent. “I went into the bus lane for a while and then had to go back into traffic.”

He quickly rang an ambulance realizing he may not make it in time. As a medical student, Alfahli had the opportunity to deliver a baby or two. “I had delivered babies as a medical student . . . but that was a long, long, time ago,” he said.

But the situation worsened, and he was forced to stop the car.

Alfahli said: “My wife told me she felt the head of the baby was out and I stopped the car. I am a doctor. I ran around to the back of the car and saw the head was out. I told her to push one more time and the baby was delivered.”

“I made sure the baby was breathing, turned him upside down and patted him on the back and he started crying,” he said.

When rescue services arrived, Alfahli took a pair of scissors from them and cut the umbilical cord himself. Afterwards, the family was taken to Holles Street Hospital.

The healthy baby boy was yet to be named at the time, weighing 3.5 kilograms.