Student nurse Keshia Meintjies, with her fiance Mark Rodgers, were in the right place at the right time. The couple along with pharmacy staff helped deliver a healthy baby boy outside their local pharmacy.
Mark Rogers and his fiancee Keshia Meintjies were at their local pharmacy picking up medicine for their 3-year-old when a scream came from outside. Everyone in the pharmacy froze. Mark went to investigate and came running back inside to get help.
A woman who was passing by the pharmacy went into labour. Her water broke right there on the sidewalk and baby was ready to come out. Keshia, a fourth-year nursing student from the Life College of Learning, ran to offer her assistance.
“It was about 7.20pm when Mark ran in yelling that a pregnant woman outside the pharmacy needed help. It was just after we heard someone screaming in pain and all of us were just staring at each other, not knowing what was going on outside,”
“When some of the employees [of the pharmacy] and I got outside, I realised the woman’s water broke and she was having contractions. I immediately started to panic because I did not know what to do! I’m not a midwife, you know.
“We tried to make the woman as comfortable as possible while we tried to get the ambulance to come.” – Keshia Meintjies
Keshia’s panic quickly subsided and her instincts kicked in. They realised the ambulance wasn’t going to arrive and so Keshia took control of the situation. A mere 10-minutes later, the woman, known only as Wendy, gave birth to a healthy baby boy. The group cancelled the call for the ambulance and took the mother to the hospital.
“Everything went well and – since the ambulance had not arrived at the time – we called a Uitenhage security company, Topflight Security, who took Wendy to Provincial Hospital in Uitenhage. Keshia and I went along just to make sure that mother and son got to the hospital safely.” – Mark Rodgers
As Keshia is still a student, she was worried that by helping the woman, she would get in trouble. The rules at her college prohibit students from dispensing medical care. However, the fact that this was an emergency situation, she has been hailed as a hero at school.
“Because I’m not a midwife I’m not supposed to be doing that, but, since it was an emergency I guess that rule didn’t matter. Everyone was proud of me and I’m really just glad and happy that I could help.
“I’m really grateful that the mother and her little boy are doing fine,”
According to HeraldLIVE, the mother and baby were discharged after being checked over by the doctors.
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