A physically challenged lab technician from Delhi pulled a movie-like delivery on a running train when a pregnant woman on board complained of labour pain.
Samparkranti COVID-19 special express, that was bound for Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh (MP) had a female passenger on board who was soon due for delivery. The train was on its way when the woman was heard howling in pain. Sunil Prajapati, a lab technician who was heading home to Sagar in MP heard the cries and rushed to help the woman.
Prajapati delivered the child with an eye doctor on video conferencing, making do with what was available on the train, including a thread string plucked out of a shawl and a shaving blade. Prajapati emerged as a Hindi-film hero, reminiscent of the climax scene from the movie '3 Idiots' when Rancho and his friends delivered a child in a college with instructions from the doctor.
Now the act might not have been as dramatic as the one shown in the movie with the engineers creating a suction pump from a vacuum cleaner for the mother who was tired of pushing but it was no less appreciatory, especially given it's not a movie but real life.
"There was no time to spare and I followed her (the doctor's) instruction carefully. Fortunately, I managed to arrange for a fresh unused blade from a passenger, with which I cut the umbilical cord," Prajapati was quoted as saying by The Times of India.
The lab technician, who is currently posted in the pathology department of Northern railway Delhi division hospital, Chandni Chowk was hailed a hero by his superiors for his brave act.
The woman, identified as Kiran, had a history of miscarriage, having suffered three earlier. "Railway staff went out of their way to help me. They used video calling, something which I could not have imagined for my delivery," she told the publication.
After the delivery, a railway protection force team including a female constable took the woman passenger and her newly born infant to Mathura district hospital.