A Kentucky doctor helped deliver a baby few moments before giving birth to her own child. Dr. Amanda Hess, an obstetrician, was preparing to give birth to her second child on Sunday, when one of her patients, Leah Halliday Johnson, was about to deliver her fourth child.

Hess was already wearing her hospital gown at the Frankfort Regional Medical Center when apparently she overheard nurses preparing for a woman in labor who needed to deliver immediately because her baby was in distress.

Image credit: WKYT News Staff
Image credit: WKYT News Staff

Hess told WKYT-TV that her husband said, “Is that a woman screaming?” Hess then got up and helped Halliday Johnson deliver her child.

OBGYN delivers patient’s baby while in labor because doctor on-call hadn’t arrived

Halliday Johnson said Hess had examined her a couple of times during her pregnancy, but she wasn’t exclusively her doctor at Woman’s Care of the Blue Grass, where the obstetrician practices.

“I saw her three or four times, and I liked her a lot,” said Halliday Johnson, according to NBC News. “She wasn’t supposed to be on call since she was having a baby herself.”

According to a Facebook post by Dr. Hala Sabry, Hess and her husband overheard the patient screaming, and she got up bed at once to aid her. Halliday Johnson was fully dilated and was waiting for the doctor on-call to come to the hospital for the delivery. However, Hess, a doctor of osteopathic medicine with certifications in gynecology and obstetrics, knew they had no time to spare.

“I just put on another gown to cover up my backside and put on some boots over my shows, to keep from getting any fluid and all that stuff on me, and went down to her room and I knew her,” Hess told Lex 18.

The doctor thought to herself that she wasn’t on call, and she was wearing a gown, but she thought they ought to have the baby right away, Hess told NBC News. The patient said she didn’t know Hess was in labor at the moment, as the doctor was completely professional throughout the delivery.

Dr. Hess gave birth to her baby daughter moments after delivering Johnson’s baby girl

Halliday Johnson said Hess was definitely “in doctor mode.” Her husband did notice something odd was going on because she had on a hospital gown, but she didn’t notice that because she was on the delivery table.

Hess said she believed she’d be working late into her pregnancy, but never thought she’d be working the same day she gave birth. WLEX-18 reported that her contractions began just a few minutes after she delivered Halliday Johnson’s daughter.

Halliday Johnson said what Hess did was pretty amazing, and that she felt fortunate Hess was there and the type of person who would step up when needed. The hospital staff then delivered Hess’ baby girl, Ellen Joyce.

“You know, I love doing what I do,” Hess told WKYT. “I love taking care of mothers and babies and you have a lot of doctors always thinking of their patients, even when they’re patients themselves.”

Source: NBC News