Pregnant doctor ready to give birth hears a laboring mom screaming in next room, rushes in to save her baby's life
Doctors are never really off-duty. They work round the clock to care for patients and provide critical care to those in need. According to PEOPLE, an obstetrician from Kentucky proved that her duty as a doctor came above her own medical emergencies when she came face to face with a challenging situation at the hospital. In 2017, Dr. Amanda Hess arrived at the Frankfort Regional Medical Center to give birth to her second baby. However, there was a serious issue brewing in another hospital cabin two doors down. Another mom was going through labor and needed immediate medical attention.
Patient Leah Halliday Johnson's unborn baby was in a critical situation as the baby's heartbeat dropped rapidly. When Hess found that the on-call doctor was not present at the building, she took a bold step to slip on some splash-proof boots and walked to Johnson's cabin. Hess' husband told her that he heard screams of pain coming from Johnson's cabin and Hess spotted nurses running down the hallway. She offered to help right away. “The baby needed to be delivered right away,” Hess told PEOPLE in an interview. “Then I walked back and one hour later I started contractions.”
While the other doctor was still 10 minutes away from reaching Johnson, the nurses attended to her and told Johnson to try not to push. However, the fetus had the umbilical cord loosely wrapped around her neck. “I said, ‘We don’t have time for that,’” Hess recalled. “I was not being quiet about the fact that it was difficult for me not to push,” Halliday-Johnson told the news outlet. She let out a scream or two since no pain medication was administered to her. Thankfully, she managed to deliver a healthy baby soon after and the on-call doctor arrived to finish the delivery procedures as well.
After delivering Johnson's baby, Hess returned to her own room to start the medication to induce her own labor. The following morning, Hess gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Ellen Joyce. “It was a perfect way to get my own labor started,” Hess admitted. "She was definitely in doctor mode," Johnson informed WLEX 18. “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." Being a doctor, Hess already knew that she would be working late into her pregnancy but she didn't expect to work on the day she was about to give birth.
"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," Hess told WLEX-18. Even though the two new moms didn't get to interact soon after their individual deliveries, Johnson was grateful for what Hess did. "She's definitely earned her time off," Johnson added. "I appreciate what she did for my family, and it speaks a lot to who she is as a woman and a mother, as well as, a doctor. It makes you feel better, bringing a baby girl into the world, knowing there are women like her willing to step up like that." Hess was also interviewed by Good Morning America where her valiant efforts were praised.