Hyderabad: A 24-year-old woman delivered a baby boy in an RTC bus in the city on Friday even though the driver tried hard to negotiate the vehicle through the early morning traffic from Miyapur to reach the government maternity hospital at Sultan Bazaar.
TSRTC will give appreciation letters to driver Ch. Raghu and conductor G. Venkat-eswarlu. Ms Lakshmi, a resident of IDA Bolarum, visited the Petlaburj Maternity Hospital on Thursday and was due to deliver on October 21.
We skipped most stops: Conductor
Ms Lakshmi, a resident of IDA Bolarum, developed pains early on Friday morning and thought it would be best to visit her doctors again. “It was before 6 am. She boarded the bus at Miyapur and almost immediately started crying in pain. She was right behind the driver and I was at the rear, issuing tickets. Within a few minutes, when I reached her, I could understand that she was due for delivery and needed to reach the hospital. So we skipped most stops and drove very fast,” said Mr G. Venkateswarlu, the conductor of the bus in which she delivered the baby.
“Halfway to Koti, she was in immense pain and was almost screaming. Her mother-in-law requested me to drive faster. So we just skipped stops and only dropped whoever wanted to disembark,” Mr Raghu, the driver of the bus, said.
“Near the Koti traffic signal, she suddenly sat on the floor and within a few minutes she delivered the baby. I think God helped them. Though she was crying, it happened so smoothly. The road was also bumpy with potholes. Maybe that also helped her to deliver smoothly,” Mr Venkateswarlu said. After the bus reached the hospital, the staff was called and they completed the post-delivery process in the bus itself and wheeled the mother and child into the hospital.
Superintendent of Sultan Bazaar Maternity Hospital Dr S. Sandhya Rani, said the delivery took place when the bus was only 10 minutes from the hospital. “It was not a premature delivery. She was expected to deliver on October 21 but It happened 10 days earlier. It is quite normal,” she said. Asked why they didn't head to the nearest hospital, they said the woman wanted to go to the Petlaburj hospita. Why didn't they call an ambulance? They said it would have taken the same amount of time.
