An Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and a pilot of pre-hospital care ambulance stationed at Akuressa yesterday helped deliver a baby on the way to the Matara General hospital. The baby was delivered in the moving ambulance around 2.30- a.m. last morning morning on its way to hospital.
According to the person in charge of the pre hospital care ambulance service in Matara and Hambantota districts L.G. Gamini, the woman was in labour pain when the ambulance reached her house around 1.30 a.m.
“This was emergency situation and the baby had to be delivered on the way before the ambulance reached the hospital,”he said
Gamini added that the pilot stopped the ambulance at a road side after he felt that the woman was on the verge of delivering the baby and helped the EMT deliver the baby.
“The baby and the mother who were stable were later admitted to the Matara General hospital”, he said.
Gamini said that Emergency Medical Technicians have been trained in India as per stringent standards expected of this care and the pilot of the ambulance has also received special training in Sri Lanka to face such an situation. He said that his crew often transports women in labour for delivery to various hospitals on receiving emergency calls.
This ambulance service was launched in Sri Lanka on an outright grant of US$ 7.6 million from the Indian government to promote medical facilities in this front on the intervention of India Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
