Muhammad Amirul Irfan was delivered by a 19-year-old Penang St John
Ambulance member when her mother had labour pains while the vehicle they
were in was caught in a traffic jam at Jalan Batu Uban at 1.10pm on March
1.
Noridah said she wanted to be taken to the
hospital in an ambulance to deliver her baby as she went through a
discomforting experience of giving birth to her third son in a car last
year.
”I thought that it would be practical to take
an ambulance this time instead of a car,” Noridah said when met at her home
at Jalan Merbah, Sungai Ara, yesterday.
Noridah and her husband Ibrahim Abdul Rahim,
29, a factory bus driver, have two elder children; also boys aged six and
two.
St John Ambulance state commander Datuk Dr
Yee Thiam Sun and the emergency 'midwife' Ng Jia Tatt visited the newborn
and his parents yesterday and presented them with gifts and ang pow.
Dr Yee said Muhammad Amirul would be
acknowledged as a life member of the Penang St John.
Ibrahim said Noridah started having pains at
noon that day and he personally requested for an ambulance at the St John's
Emergency Medical Assistance Service (EMAS) base at the Bayan Baru Community
Clinic in Jalan Tengah, Bayan Baru.
“After my wife was taken into the ambulance,
I followed the vehicle on my motorcycle without even realising that my son
had already been born,'' he said.
Ng, a St John's Grand Prior award recipient,
said he was with Noridah inside the ambulance when she told him that the
baby was pushing hard.
”I told her to lie down on the stretcher
inside the ambulance and when I saw the baby's head coming out, I panicked
but I controlled myself.
“I didn't have the time to be embarrassed
although it was my first experience. My main concern was to help deliver the
baby safely.
“I single-handedly delivered the baby without
any complications and I am glad that both mother and child are safe,'' he
said.
