When Dr. Amanda Hess, an obstetrician-gynecologist, checked into a Kentucky hospital to be induced to give birth to her second child on Sunday, July 23, she wasn’t expecting to deliver another woman’s baby hours before her own.
After the OBGYN had already changed into her hospital gown, she overheard another expectant mother screaming. It turned out to be Leah Halliday Johnson, a patient of Hess’s, who was fully dilated and waiting for the doctor on call to return from a break so she could deliver. Hess sprang into action.
“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 and I knew her,” the doctor explained to WYKT News. “She was just glad to be able to push and get to have the baby out and be delivered and not have to wait any longer.”
After Dr. Hess delivered Halliday Johnson’s daughter, she was able to welcome her own daughter, Ellen Joyce, just hours later. “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,” Halliday Johnson told WLEX 18.
Both moms and newborn babies are doing well.
