TIRUCHY: A 30-year-old software engineer who developed labour pains in a running train, gave birth to a baby boy in an ambulance van while near the entrance to the city-based Kauvery hospital, in the early hours of Monday.
Official sources said that Mrs Packiyalakshmi and her software engineer husband Senthilkumar, working for a software firm in Chennai, were on their way to their native village Karukkampatti in Tirunelveli district by the Chennai Egmore-Sencottah Pothigai express.
When the train approached Virudhachalam at around 0030 hrs, she developed labour pains. Her husband and co-passengers asked the travelling ticket examiner (TTE) and railway police force (RPF) authorities to stop the train at Ariyalur to enable them to admit her in a hospital there. The TTE told the couple that since Ariyalur did not have adequate medical facility, it was not advisable to admit her there, and told the couple that they would arrange ‘pucca’ arrangements at Tiruchy.
On information, a medical team of Kauvery hospital, which runs a first aid centre at the railway junction here, got ready to receive the pregnant woman. The station manager made suitable arrangements to receive the train on platform number one, very close to the junction entrance as well as to the first aid centre of the hospital.
When the train arrived here at around 0240 hrs, the medical team took the pregnant woman to the first aid centre and quickly moved her to their hospital in an ambulance. However, Mrs Packiyalakshmi gave birth to a male child inside the ambulance itself on her way to the hospital. Later, she and her newborn were admitted in the hospital for further treatment. Both mother and child are doing well, said hospital sources.
